Rail"road` , v. t. To carry or send
by railroad; usually fig., to send
or put through at high speed or
in great haste; to hurry or rush
unduly; as, to railroad a bill through Condress. [Colloq., U. S.]
{ Rail"road` (rāl"rōd`), Rail"way` (- wā`), } n.
1. A road or way consisting of one or more parallel series of iron or steel
rails, patterned and adjusted to
be tracks for the wheels of vehicles, and suitably supported on a bed or substructure.
&fist; The modern railroad is a development and adaptation of the older tramway.
2. The road, track, etc., with all the
lands, buildings, rolling stock, franchises, etc., pertaining to them and
constituting one property;
as, a certain railroad has been put
into the hands of a receiver.
&fist;
Railway is the commoner word in England; railroad the commoner word in the United States.
&fist; In the following and similar phrases railroad and railway
are used interchangeably: --
Atmospheric railway, Elevated railway, etc. See under Atmospheric, Elevated, etc. -- Cable railway. See Cable road, under Cable. --
Ferry railway, a
submerged track on which an elevated platform runs, for carrying a train of cars
across a water course. -- Gravity railway, a
railway, in a hilly country, on which the
cars run by gravity down gentle slopes for long distances after having been hauled up steep inclines to an elevated point by stationary engines. --
Railway brake, a brake used in stopping railway cars or
locomotives. -- Railway car, a large, heavy vehicle with flanged wheels fitted for running on a railway. [U.S.]
-- Railway carriage, a railway passenger car. [Eng.] --
Railway scale, a platform scale bearing a track which forms part of the line of a
railway, for weighing loaded
cars. -- Railway slide. See Transfer table, under Transfer. -- Railway spine (Med.), an abnormal condition due to severe
concussion of the spinal cord, such as
occurs in railroad accidents.
It is characterized by ataxia and
other disturbances of muscular function, sensory disorders, pain in the back, impairment of general health, and cerebral disturbance, -- the symptoms
often not developing till some months after the injury. -- Underground railroad or railway.
(a) A railroad or railway running through a tunnel, as beneath the streets of a city.
(b) Formerly, a system of coöperation among certain active antislavery people in the United
States, by which fugitive slaves were secretly helped to reach Canada. [In the latter
sense railroad, and not railway, was used.] "Their house was a principal entrepôt
of the underground railroad." W. D. Howells.
Hear it pronounced