RAILS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rails mean? 

• RAILS (noun)
  The noun RAILS has 1 sense:

1. a bar or pair of parallel bars of rolled steel making the railway along which railroad cars or other vehicles can roll

  Familiarity information: RAILS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAILS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A bar or pair of parallel bars of rolled steel making the railway along which railroad cars or other vehicles can roll

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

rail; rails; runway; track

Hypernyms ("rails" is a kind of...):

bar (a rigid piece of metal or wood; usually used as a fastening or obstruction or weapon)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "rails"):

third rail (a rail through which electric current is supplied to an electric locomotive)

Holonyms ("rails" is a part of...):

railroad; railroad track; railway (a line of track providing a runway for wheels)

streetcar track; tramline; tramway (the track on which trams or streetcars run)

 Context examples 

She was returning: of course my heart thumped with impatience against the iron rails I leant upon.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Two hundred yards or so in front of us there was a bridge, with wooden posts and rails upon either side.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Keep a watchful eye over all that you do at work, for something may go off the rails, and you will be needed to take a hand in making a quick correction.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The plump young man led us to a spot where the top of one of the wooden rails had been cracked.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The research found that two of the species in the study, saltmarsh sparrows and clapper rails, are declining from increased coastal flooding caused by higher sea levels.

(Coastal birds can weather the storm, but not the sea, National Science Foundation)

Mycroft has his rails and he runs on them.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Behind the rails of the balcony I saw there were some loose boards, whose raw edges looked white.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But you may imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the first pew.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mr. Dick shook his head, as utterly renouncing the suggestion; and having replied a great many times, and with great confidence, No beggar, no beggar, no beggar, sir! went on to say, that from his window he had afterwards, and late at night, seen my aunt give this person money outside the garden rails in the moonlight, who then slunk away—into the ground again, as he thought probable—and was seen no more: while my aunt came hurriedly and secretly back into the house, and had, even that morning, been quite different from her usual self; which preyed on Mr. Dick's mind.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

During the bustle Jo had scarcely spoken but flown about, looking pale and wild, with her things half off, her dress torn, and her hands cut and bruised by ice and rails and refractory buckles.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)