English
train
see also: Train
Pronunciation
  • enPR: trān, IPA: /tɹeɪn/, [tɹeɪn], [t̠ɹ̠ ̝ʷeɪn]
Noun

train (plural trains)

  1. Elongated portion.
    1. The elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground. [from 14th c.]
      Unfortunately, the leading bridesmaid stepped on the bride's train as they were walking down the aisle.
      • 1817, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey:
        They called each other by their Christian name, were always arm in arm when they walked, pinned up each other's train for the dance, and were not to be divided in the set [...].
      • 2011, Imogen Fox, The Guardian, 20 Apr 2011:
        Lace sleeves, a demure neckline, a full skirt and a relatively modest train.
    2. A trail or line of something, especially gunpowder. [from 15th c.]
      • 1873, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Aunt Charlotte's Stories of English History for the little ones:
        A party was sent to search, and there they found all the powder ready prepared, and, moreover, a man with a lantern, one Guy Fawkes, who had undertaken to be the one to set fire to the train of gunpowder, hoping to escape before the explosion.
    3. The tail of a bird.
    4. (astronomy) A transient trail of glowing ions behind a large meteor as it falls through the atmosphere.
    5. (now, rare) An animal's trail or track. [from 16th c.]
  2. Connected sequence of people or things.
    1. A group of people following an important figure, king etc.; a retinue, a group of retainers. [from 14th c.]
      • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 5 scene 1
        Sir, I invite your Highness and your train / To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest /For this one night
      • 2009, Anne Easter Smith, The King's Grace:
        Grace was glad the citizenry did not know Katherine Gordon was in the king's train, but she was beginning to understand Henry's motive for including the pretender's wife.
    2. A group of animals, vehicles, or people that follow one another in a line, such as a wagon train; a caravan or procession. [from 15th c.]
      Our party formed a train at the funeral parlor before departing for the burial.
    3. A sequence of events or ideas which are interconnected; a course or procedure of something. [from 15th c.]
      • 1872, Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals:
        A man may be absorbed in the deepest thought, and his brow will remain smooth until he encounters some obstacle in his train of reasoning, or is interrupted by some disturbance, and then a frown passes like a shadow over his brow.
      • 2012, Rory Carroll, The Guardian, 18 Jun 2012:
        "Where was I?" he asked several times during the lunch, losing his train of thought.
    4. (military) The men and vehicles following an army, which carry artillery and other equipment for battle or siege. [from 16th c.]
    5. (obsolete) State of progress, status, situation (in phrases introduced by in a + adjective). [18th-19th c.]
      in a fair / better / worse train
      • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, London, Volume 4, Letter 26, p. 139,
        As we had been in a good train for several days past, I thought it not prudent to break with him, for little matters.
      • 1779, Samuel Jackson Pratt, Shenstone-Green: or, the New Paradise Lost, London, R. Baldwin, Volume 1, Chapter 7, p. 46,
        I took care that my absence should neither be lamented by the poor nor the rich. I put every thing in a fair train of going on smoothly, and actually set out, with my steward, for my estate in Wales at dawning of the day.
      • 1787, George Washington, letter to Alexander Hamilton dated 10 July, 1787, in The Writings of George Washington, Boston: American Stationers’ Company, 1837, Volume 9, p. 260,
        When I refer you to the state of the counsels, which prevailed at the period you left this city, and add that they are now if possible in a worse train than ever, you will find but little ground on which the hope of a good establishment can be formed.
      • 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, London: T. Egerton, Volume 3, Chapter 6, p. 121,
        […] every thing was now in a fairer train for Miss Crawford’s marrying Edmund than it had ever been before.
    6. A set of interconnected mechanical parts which operate each other in sequence. [from 18th c.]
    7. A series of electrical pulses. [from 19th c.]
    8. A series of specified vehicles, originally tramcars in a mine, and later especially railway carriages, coupled together. [from 19th c.]
    9. A line of connected railway cars or carriages considered overall as a mode of transport; (as uncountable noun) rail travel. [from 19th c.]
      The train will pull in at midday.
      • 2009, Hanif Kureishi, The Guardian, 24 Jan 2009:
        This winter we thought we'd go to Venice by train, for the adventure.
    10. A long, heavy sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, etc.
    11. (computing) A software release schedule.
      • 2008, Michael Bushong, ‎Cathy Gadecki, ‎Aviva Garrett, JUNOS For Dummies (page 16)
        What steps do development engineers follow when adding new feature code? How do they support different software versions or release trains?
    12. (sex, slang) An act wherein series of men line up and then penetrate a person, especially as a form of gang rape. [from 20th c.]
      • 1988, X Motion Picture and Center for New Art Activities (New York, N.Y.), Bomb: Issues 26-29, link ↗
        Then Swooney agreed, "Yeah, let's run a train up the fat cunt."
      • 2005, Violet Blue, Best Women's Erotica 2006: Volume 2001, link ↗
        “You want us to run a train on you?”
      • 2010, Diesel King, A Good Time in the Hood, page 12 ↗
        We eventually began to decide that with the endless supply of men we had there was no need to only run trains, or gangbang, the insatiables.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Russian: се́рия
Translations
  • Russian: цепо́чка
Translations Verb

train (trains, present participle training; past and past participle trained)

  1. (intransitive) To practice an ability.
    She trained seven hours a day to prepare for the Olympics.
  2. (transitive) To teach and form by practice; to educate; to exercise with discipline.
    • The warrior horse here bred he's taught to train.
    You can't train a pig to write poetry.
  3. (intransitive) To improve one's fitness.
    I trained with weights all winter.
  4. To proceed in sequence.
  5. (transitive) To move (a gun) laterally so that it points in a different direction.
    The assassin had trained his gun on the minister.
  6. (transitive, horticulture) To encourage (a plant or branch) to grow in a particular direction or shape, usually by pruning and bending.
    The vine had been trained over the pergola.
    • He trained the young branches to the right hand or to the left.
  7. (mining) To trace (a lode or any mineral appearance) to its head.
  8. (transitive, video games) To create a trainer for; to apply cheats to (a game).
    • 2000, "Sensei David O.E. Mohr - Lord Ronin from Q-Link", WTB:"The Last V-8" C128 game -name correction (on newsgroup comp.sys.cbm)
      I got a twix on the 128 version being fixed and trained by Mad Max at M2K BBS 208-587-7636 in Mountain Home Idaho. He fixes many games and puts them on his board. One of my sources for games and utils.
  9. (obsolete) To draw along; to trail; to drag.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book 6”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
      In hollow cube / Training his devilish enginery.
  10. (obsolete) To draw by persuasion, artifice, or the like; to attract by stratagem; to entice; to allure.
    • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene iv]:
      If but a dozen French / Were there in arms, they would be as a call / To train ten thousand English to their side.
    • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:
      O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note.
    • This feast, I'll gage my life, / Is but a plot to train you to your ruin.
    • 1825, Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman
      Thou hast been trained from thy post by some deep guile — some well-devised stratagem — the cry of some distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or the laughful look of some merry one has taken thine eye.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

train (plural trains)

  1. (obsolete) Treachery; deceit. [14th-19th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.3:
      In the meane time, through that false Ladies traine / He was surprisd, and buried under beare, / Ne ever to his worke returnd againe [...].
  2. (obsolete) A trick or stratagem. [14th-19th c.]
  3. (obsolete) A trap for animals; a snare. [14th-18th c.]
  4. (obsolete) A lure; a decoy. [15th-18th c.]
Train
Proper noun
  1. Surname


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