RAILWAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does railway mean? 

• RAILWAY (noun)
  The noun RAILWAY has 2 senses:

1. line that is the commercial organization responsible for operating a system of transportation for trains that pull passengers or freight

2. a line of track providing a runway for wheels

  Familiarity information: RAILWAY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAILWAY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Line that is the commercial organization responsible for operating a system of transportation for trains that pull passengers or freight

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

railroad; railroad line; railway; railway line; railway system

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

line (a commercial organization serving as a common carrier)

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

cable railway; funicular; funicular railway (a railway up the side of a mountain pulled by a moving cable and having counterbalancing ascending and descending cars)

cog railway; rack railway (railway for steep mountains; a cogwheel on the locomotive engages cogs on a center rail to provide traction)

el; elevated; elevated railroad; elevated railway; overhead railway (a railway that is powered by electricity and that runs on a track that is raised above the street level)

metro; subway; subway system; tube; underground (an electric railway operating below the surface of the ground (usually in a city))

monorail (a railway having a single track)

rail (short for railway)

scenic railway (small railway in an amusement park)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A line of track providing a runway for wheels

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

railroad; railroad track; railway

Context example:

he walked along the railroad track

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

track (a pair of parallel rails providing a runway for wheels)

Meronyms (parts of "railway"):

crosstie; railroad tie; sleeper; tie (one of the cross braces that support the rails on a railway track)

rail; rails; runway; track (a bar or pair of parallel bars of rolled steel making the railway along which railroad cars or other vehicles can roll)

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

broad gauge (a railroad track (or its width) broader than the standard 56.5 inches)

gantlet (the convergence of two parallel railroad tracks in a narrow place; the inner rails cross and run parallel and then diverge so a train remains on its own tracks at all times)

narrow gauge (a railroad track (or its width) narrower than the standard 56.5 inches)

railroad siding; sidetrack; siding; turnout (a short stretch of railroad track used to store rolling stock or enable trains on the same line to pass)

standard gauge (railroad track having the standard width of 56.5 inches)

switch (railroad track having two movable rails and necessary connections; used to turn a train from one track to another or to store rolling stock)

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

line; rail line; railway line (the road consisting of railroad track and roadbed)

 Context examples 

As he came up to me I made out that he was a railway porter.

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

This network of small tubes within a cell provides structural support and acts as a kind of inner cellular railway system, transporting organelles and molecular complexes vital for a cell’s survival.

(Researchers develop “hibernation in a dish” to study how animals adapt to the cold, National Institutes of Health)

My friend was standing with an expression of strained intensity upon his face, staring at the railway metals where they curved out of the tunnel.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We and our fathers before us lived much the same life, but they with their railway trains and their steamboats belong to a different age.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We have had inquiries made as to any stranger seen on the country roads or at the railway station.

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

My dearest Lucy,—I know you will be anxious to hear all that has happened since we parted at the railway station at Whitby.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs.

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

It's on record, your position on interstate commerce regulation, on regulation of the railway trust and Standard Oil, on the conservation of the forests, on a thousand and one restrictive measures that are nothing else than socialistic.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Clerks in the express office took charge of him; he was carted about in another wagon; a truck carried him, with an assortment of boxes and parcels, upon a ferry steamer; he was trucked off the steamer into a great railway depot, and finally he was deposited in an express car.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

On the other side I saw the red signal-lamps of a railway.

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