railroad
Americannoun
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a permanent road laid with rails, rail, commonly in one or more pairs of continuous lines forming a track or tracks, on which locomotives and cars are run for the transportation of passengers, freight, and mail.
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an entire system of such roads together with its rolling stock, buildings, etc.; the entire railway plant, including fixed and movable property.
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the company of persons owning or operating such a plant.
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Bowling. a split.
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railroads, stocks or bonds of railroad companies.
verb (used with object)
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to transport by means of a railroad.
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to supply with railroads.
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Informal. to push (a law or bill) hastily through a legislature so that there is not time enough for objections to be considered.
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Informal. to convict (a person) in a hasty manner by means of false charges or insufficient evidence.
The prisoner insisted he had been railroaded.
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
- nonrailroad adjective
- prerailroad adjective
- prorailroad adjective
- unrailroaded adjective
Etymology
Origin of railroad
1750–60; 1875–85 railroad for def. 9; rail 1 + road
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Abel said that he plans to leave the CEOs of Berkshire’s companies, which range from railroads to footwear, largely alone to manage their businesses as Buffett had.
But when the New York & Erie Railroad created the first business org chart in the 1850s, capturing the complexity of the railroad’s signaling and communications, it resembled a tree.
Their spacious home served as an underground railroad station assisting enslaved men, women, and children escaping from southern states into Canada.
From Literature
Compared with such past buildouts as America’s railroads, data centers do little for local economies.
From Barron's
“Grandpa,” I said, “if those monkeys are the ones that got away from the circus train, how do you suppose they got way over here? It’s eight miles from our place over to the railroad.”
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
