• IPA: /ɹeɪl/, [ɹeɪɫ]

rail (plural rails)

1. A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing.
2. The metal bar that makes the track for a railroad.
3. A railroad; a railway, as a means of transportation.

   We travelled to the seaside by rail.

   a small Scottish village not accessible by rail

4. A horizontal piece of wood that serves to separate sections of a door or window.
5. (surfing) One of the lengthwise edges of a surfboard.
   • circa 2000 Nick Carroll, surfline.com :

     Rails alone can only ever have a marginal effect on a board's general turning ability.

6. (internet) A vertical section on one side of a web page.

   We're experimenting with ads in the right-hand rail.

7. (drugs) A large line portion or serving of a powdery illegal drug.

• German: Geländer, (naut.) Reling
• Italian: parapetto, balaustra, grata, inferriata, ringhiera, corrimano
• Portuguese: corrimão, ferrovia
• Russian: (a horizontal bar) перекла́дина
• Spanish: barra, barandilla, barandal

• French: rail
• German: Schiene, (track, sometimes incorrectly used like rail, slang) Gleis
• Italian: rotaia
• Portuguese: trilho (Portugal), carril (Brazil)
• Russian: рельс
• Spanish: raíl, riel, carril

• German: (hardly used) Kreuz, (window) Fensterkreuz, Türkreuz, Balken
• Italian: asta divisoria, divisorio, barra

• Italian: battagliola

rail (rails, present participle railing; past and past participle railed)

1. (intransitive) To travel by railway.
   • 1890, Rudyard Kipling, At the End of the Passage

     Mottram of the Indian Survey had ridden thirty and railed one hundred miles from his lonely post in the desert […]

2. (transitive) To enclose with rails or a railing.

   • It ought to be fenced in and railed.

3. (transitive) To range in a line.
   • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: Printed by W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, OCLC 1086746628 ↗:

     They were brought to London all railed in ropes, like a team of horses in a cart.

4. to criticize severely.

rail (plural rails)

1. Any of several birds in the family Rallidae.

• ralline

• French: râle
• German: Ralle
• Italian: rallo, porciglione
• Russian: пастушо́к
• Spanish: rascón

rail (rails, present participle railing; past and past participle railed)

1. To complain violently (against, about).
   • 1882, Mark Twain, The Stolen White Elephant,

     Now that the detectives were in adversity, the newspapers turned upon them, and began to fling the most stinging sarcasms at them. This gave the minstrels an idea, and they dressed themselves as detectives and hunted the elephant on the stage in the most extravagant way. The caricaturists made pictures of detectives scanning the country with spy-glasses, while the elephant, at their backs, stole apples out of their pockets. And they made all sorts of ridiculous pictures of the detective badge—you have seen that badge printed in gold on the back of detective novels no doubt, it is a wide-staring eye, with the legend, “WE NEVER SLEEP.” When detectives called for a drink, the would-be facetious barkeeper resurrected an obsolete form of expression and said, “Will you have an eye-opener?” All the air was thick with sarcasms. But there was one man who moved calm, untouched, unaffected, through it all. It was that heart of oak, the chief inspector. His brave eye never drooped, his serene confidence never wavered. He always said: “Let them rail on; he laughs best who laughs last.”

   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 27:

     Chief Joyi railed against the white man, whom he believed had deliberately sundered the Xhosa tribe, dividing brother from brother.

• German: hetzen
• Italian: lamentarsi, recriminare, inveire
• Russian: руга́ть

rail (plural rails)

1. (obsolete) An item of clothing; a cloak or other garment; a dress.
2. (obsolete) Specifically, a woman's headscarf or neckerchief.

rail (rails, present participle railing; past and past participle railed)

1. (obsolete, of a liquid) To gush, flow.
   • a. 1472, Thomas Malory, “Capitulum iv”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, OCLC 71490786 ↗; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034 ↗:

     his breste and his brayle was bloodé – and hit rayled all over the see.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.2:

     So furiously each other did assayle, / As if their soules they would attonce haue rent / Out of their brests, that streames of bloud did rayle / Adowne, as if their springes of life were spent […].