Last modified on 29 March 2015, at 05:21



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From rail + road.


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railroad (plural railroads)

  1. (chiefly US and Canada) A permanent road consisting of fixed metal rails to drive trains or similar motorized vehicles on.
    Many railroads roughly follow the trace of older land - and/or water roads
  2. (chiefly US and Canada) The transportation system comprising such roads and vehicles fitted to travel on the rails, usually with several vehicles connected together in a train.
  3. (chiefly US and Canada) A single, privately or publicly owned property comprising one or more such roads and usually associated assets
    Railroads can only compete fully if their tracks are technically compatible with and linked to each-other
  4. (figuratively) A procedure conducted or bullied in haste without due consideration.
    The lawyers made the procedure a railroad to get the signatures they needed.


Derived termsEdit




railroad (third-person singular simple present railroads, present participle railroading, simple past and past participle railroaded)

  1. (transitive) To transport via railroad.
  2. (intransitive) To operate a railroad.
    The Thatcherite experiment proved the private sector can railroad as inefficiently as a state monopoly
  3. (intransitive) To work for a railroad.
  4. (intransitive) To travel by railroad.
  5. (intransitive) To engage in a hobby pertaining to railroads.
  6. (transitive) To manipulate and hasten a procedure, as of formal approval of a law or resolution.
    The majority railroaded the bill through parliament, without the customary expert studies which would delay it till after the elections.
  7. (transitive) To convict of a crime by circumventing due process.
    They could only convict him by railroading him on suspect drug-possession charges.
  8. (transitive) To procedurally bully someone into an unfair agreement.
    He was railroaded into signing a non-disclosure agreement at his exit interview.
  9. (role-playing games) To force characters to complete a task before allowing the plot to continue.

Derived termsEdit