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rail

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: raíl

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

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  • enPR: rāl, IPA(key): /ɹeɪl/, [ɹeɪɫ]
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪl

Etymology 1

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From Middle English rail, rayl, *reȝel, *reȝol (found in reȝolsticke (“a ruler”)), partly from Old English regol (“a ruler, straight bar”) and partly from Old French reille; both from Latin regula (“rule, bar”), from regō (“to rule, to guide, to govern”); see regular. Doublet of regal, regula, rigol, and rule.

Noun

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rail (plural rails)

  1. A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.
  2. The metal bar forming part of the track for a railroad.
    • 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
      A "moving platform" scheme […] is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
  3. A railroad; a railway, as a means of transportation.
    We travelled to the seaside by rail.
    a small Scottish village not accessible by rail
    rail transport
  4. (electronics) A conductor maintained at a fixed electrical potential relative to ground, to which other circuit components are connected.
    ISA devices draw power from the +5 V, −5 V, +12 V, and −12 V rails of the power supply unit.
    • 2019 December 5, Michal Necasek, “Power Trouble”, in OS/2 Museum‎[1], archived from the original on 25 September 2022:
      There has been another, fairly gradual change in the ATX specification: Initially a lot of power was supplied on the 5V and 3.3V rails, but over time more and more power shifted to 12V because it's more efficient. Modern (ATX12V 2.x) PSUs supply most of their power on the 12V rail and not a lot on the 5V rail, which means a modern PSU may not be able to supply an old board, unless it's a really beefy PSU—because providing 500W on the 12V rail is of very little use to an AT or early ATX system.
  5. A horizontal piece of wood that serves to separate sections of a door or window.
  6. (surfing) One of the lengthwise edges of a surfboard.
    • c. 2000, Nick Carroll, surfline.com [2]:
      Rails alone can only ever have a marginal effect on a board's general turning ability.
  7. (Internet) A vertical section on one side of a web page.
    We're experimenting with ads in the right-hand rail.
  8. (drugs) A large line (portion or serving of a powdery illegal drug).
    • 2013, Jason Isbell, Super 8:
      Do a couple rails and chase your own tail
  9. Each of two vertical side bars supporting the rungs of a ladder.
    Synonyms: stile, stringer
  10. (backgammon) The raised edge of the game board.
Derived terms
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Terms derived from the noun rail
Descendants
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  • → Catalan: rail
  • → Dutch: rail
  • → French: rail
  • → Japanese: レール (rēru)
  • → Punjabi: ਰੇਲ (rel)
  • → Spanish: raíl
  • → Swahili: reli
  • → Tibetan: རི་ལི (ri li, “train”)
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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rail (third-person singular simple present rails, present participle railing, simple past and past participle railed)

  1. (intransitive) To travel by railway.
  2. (transitive, rail transport, of rolling stock) To place on a track.
  3. (transitive) To enclose with rails or a railing.
    • 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe […], →OCLC:
      It ought to be fenced in and railed.
  4. (transitive) To range in a line.
  5. (transitive, vulgar, slang) To sexually penetrate in a rough manner.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From French râle, rale, from Middle French raalle, from Old French rasle. Compare Medieval Latin rallus. Named from its harsh cry, Vulgar Latin *rasculum, from Latin rādere (“to scrape”).

Noun

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rail (plural rails)

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Wikispecies has information on:

Wikispecies

  1. Any of several birds in the family Rallidae.
Usage notes
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Derived terms
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Translations
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See also

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Etymology 3

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From Middle French railler.

Verb

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rail (third-person singular simple present rails, present participle railing, simple past and past participle railed)

  2. To complain violently (against, about).
    Synonyms: fulminate, inveigh
    • c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
      Till thou canst raile the seale from off my bond
      Thou but offend'st thy Lungs to speake so loud:
      Repaire thy wit good youth, or it will fall
      To endlesse ruine. I stand heere for Law.
    • 1882, Mark Twain, “The Stolen White Elephant”‎[3]:
      He always said: “Let them rail on; he laughs best who laughs last.”
    • 1910, "Saki", H. H. Munro, The Bag,[4]
      The Major’s fury clothed and reclothed itself in words as frantically as a woman up in town for one day’s shopping tries on a succession of garments. He reviled and railed at fate and the general scheme of things, he pitied himself with a strong, deep pity too poignant for tears, he condemned every one with whom he had ever come in contact to endless and abnormal punishments.
    • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 27:
      Chief Joyi railed against the white man, whom he believed had deliberately sundered the Xhosa tribe, dividing brother from brother.
    • 2012 June 4, Lewis Smith, “Queen’s English Society says enuf is enough, innit?: Society formed 40 years ago to protect language against poor spelling and grammar closes because too few people care”, in The Guardian‎[5], London, archived from the original on 10 March 2016:
      The Queen may be celebrating her jubilee but the Queen's English Society, which has railed against the misuse and deterioration of the English language, is to fold.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 4

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From Middle English rail, reil, from Old English hræġl (“garment, dress, robe”). Cognate with Old Frisian hreil, reil, Old Saxon hregil, Old High German hregil (“clothing, garment, dress”).

Alternative forms

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Noun

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rail (plural rails)

  1. (obsolete) An item of clothing; a cloak or other garment; a dress.
  2. (obsolete) Specifically, a woman's headscarf or neckerchief.
Derived terms
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Etymology 5

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Probably from Anglo-Norman raier, Middle French raier.

Verb

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rail (third-person singular simple present rails, present participle railing, simple past and past participle railed)

  1. (obsolete, of a liquid) To gush; to flow.
  2. (obsolete, of wind) To blow.

See also

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Anagrams

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Catalan

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English rail.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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rail m (plural rails)

  1. rail
    Synonym: carril

Further reading

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  • “rail” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English rail.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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rail f (plural rails, diminutive railsje n or railtje n)

  1. rail

Usage notes

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The diminutive railsjes is only used if used for railway tracks.[1]

Descendants

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  • → Caribbean Javanese: ril
  • → Indonesian: rel

References

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  1. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20140626124929/http://taaladvies.net/taal/advies/vraag/1519/railsje_railtje/

French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English rail. Doublet of règle, reille, rigole, and rille.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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rail m (plural rails)

  1. rail

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Spanish

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Noun

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rail m (plural railes)

  1. (rare) Alternative form of raíl

Further reading

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