guardrail

See also: guard-rail and guard rail

English

A pedestrian lane guardrail in Zambia

Alternative forms

• guard rail

Etymology

From guard +‎ rail.

Noun

guardrail (plural guardrails)

1. A rail set alongside a dangerous place as a barrier, to improve safety.

   Synonyms: crash barrier, guard railing, guide board, guide rail, side rail, traffic barrier

2. (figurative, by extension) Any barrier designed to prevent accidents or mistakes.
   • 2022 August 17, Carolina Uribe-Gosselin, Live Share: Enterprise Policies are here!‎^[1]:

     Set guardrails on Visual Studio Live Share
     We’ve heard from Live Share users that they want to use Live Share in their organization, but without controls to prevent individuals from outside their company domain joining Live Share sessions, they’re blocked. We are excited that this and many other requested policies are now available.

   • 2022 October 21, Kevin Roose, “A Coming-Out Party for Generative A.I., Silicon Valley’s New Craze”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Some worry that releasing open-source generative A.I. models without guardrails could provoke a backlash among regulators and the general public that could damage the entire industry.

   • 2023 February 5, Helene Cooper, Edward Wong, “U.S. Navy Divers Work to Recover Debris From Chinese Spy Balloon as Diplomacy Dwindles”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     That a confrontation over a single surveillance balloon deemed harmless by the Pentagon could destabilize diplomacy between the two countries showed the difficulties of putting “guardrails on the relationship,” a goal stated in those terms by President Biden and his aides.

   • 2023 November 18, Blake Montgomery, Dani Anguiano, “OpenAI fires co-founder and CEO Sam Altman for allegedly lying to company board”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN:

     He also acknowledged the need for guardrails. “I really think the world is going to rise to the occasion and everybody wants to do the right thing,” Altman said.

3. (rail transport) Synonym of check rail.

Translations

rail set alongside a dangerous place

• Bulgarian: парапет (bg) m (parapet)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 護欄 / 护栏 (zh) (hùlán)

• Czech: zábradlí n, zábradlí n pl
• Dutch: vangrail (nl) m or f
• Finnish: suojakaide, turvakaide
• French: garde-fou (fr) m, garde-corps (fr) m, glissière de sécurité (fr) f (automotive), rail de sécurité (fr) m (automotive), barrière de sécurité (fr) f (automotive)
• German: Geländer (de) n (generic), Leitplanke (de) f (automotive), Schutzplanke (de) f (automotive, officialese), Leitschiene (de) f (Austria, automotive), Leitlinie (de) f (figurative)
• Greek: κιγκλίδωμα (el) n (kigklídoma)
• Hungarian: szalagkorlát (hu) n
• Italian: guardrail (it) m (automotive), barriera di protezione f (automotive), barriera protettiva f (automotive), barriera di sicurezza f (automotive), barriera stradale f (automotive), barriera di contenimento f (automotive), guardavia (it) m or f (automotive, rare), sicurvia (it) m or f (automotive, rare), guardastrada (it) m or f (automotive, rare), guidovia (it) m or f (Switzerland, automotive, rare)
• Japanese: ガードレール (ja) (gādorēru)
• Norwegian: gelender n, rekkverk n
• Polish: poręcz (pl) f, balustrada (pl) f, barierka (pl) f, bariera energochłonna f (crash barrier)
• Portuguese: guard-rail m
• Russian: огражде́ние (ru) n (ograždénije)
• Spanish: guardarraíl m (automotive), quitamiedos (es) m (automotive), pretil (es) m, antepecho (es) m, parapeto (es) m, balaustrada (es) f, arambol (es) m, repecho (es) m, brocal (es) m (of a well), guardavía m (automotive, rare)
• Swedish: räcke (sv) n

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English guardrail.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡarˈdrɛjl/, /ɡwarˈdrɛjl/
• Rhymes: -ɛjl
• Hyphenation: guard‧rail

Noun

guardrail m (invariable)

1. guardrail

   Synonyms: (rare) guardavia, (rare) sicurvia, (Switzerland, rare) guidovia, (rare) guardastrada, barriera di protezione, barriera protettiva, barriera di sicurezza, barriera stradale, barriera di contenimento

Anagrams

• guardarli