English
train
see also: Train
Etymology 1

From Middle English trayne, from Old French train, from traïner, from Vulgar Latin *traginō, from *tragō, from Latin trahō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ-.

Pronunciation
  • enPR: trān, IPA: /tɹeɪn/, [t̠ɹ̠̊˔e̞ɪn], [t͡ʃɹeɪn]
Noun

train (plural trains)

  1. Elongated or trailing 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.
      • 1803 (date written), [Jane Austen], Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC ↗:
        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 [...].
    2. A trail or line of something, especially gunpowder. [from 15th c.]
      • 1785, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Richard Price‎:
        [E]mancipation is put into such a train that in a few years there will be no slaves Northward of Maryland.
      • 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.
      • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iii], page 108 ↗, column 2:
        Let frantike Talbot triumph for a while,
        And like a Peacock ſweepe along his tayle,
        Wee’le pull his Plumes, and take away his Trayne,
        If Dolphin and the reſt will be but rul’d.
    4. (obsolete) The tail of an animal in general.
    5. (poetic) The elongated body or form of something narrow and winding, such as the course of a river or the body of a snake.
    6. (astronomy) A transient trail of glowing ions behind a large meteor as it falls through the atmosphere or accompanying a comet as it nears the sun; tail.
    7. (now, rare) An animal's trail or track. [from 16th c.]
    8. (obsolete, hunting) Something dragged or laid along the ground to form a trail of scent or food along which to lure an animal.
    9. (obsolete) Gait or manner of running of a horse.
  2. Connected sequence of people or things.
    1. A group of people following an important figure such as a king or noble; a retinue, a group of retainers. [from 14th c.]
      • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene i]:
        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. (figuratively, poetic) A group or class of people.
      • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii ↗:
        Theſe are the cruel pirates of Argier,
        That damned train, the ſcum of Affrica, […]
    4. (military) The men and vehicles following an army, which carry artillery and other equipment for battle or siege. [from 16th c.]
    5. 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.
    6. A set of things, events, or circumstances that follow after or as a consequence; aftermath, wake.
    7. (obsolete) State of progress, status, situation (in phrases introduced by in a + adjective); also proper order or situation (introduced by in or in a alone). [18th]
      in a fair / better / worse train
      • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXVI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC ↗, page 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.
      • 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 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter VI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC ↗, pages 120-121 ↗:
        […] every thing was now in a fairer train for Miss Crawford’s marrying Edmund than it had ever been before.
    8. A set of interconnected mechanical parts which operate each other in sequence. [from 18th c.]
    9. A series of electrical pulses. [from 19th c.]
    10. A series of specified vehicles (originally tramcars in a mine as usual, later especially railway carriages) coupled together. [from 19th c.]
    11. A mechanical (traditionally steam-powered, now typically diesel or electrical) vehicle carrying a large number of passengers and freight along a designated track or path; a line of connected wagons considered overall as a mode of transport; (as uncountable noun) rail or road travel. [from 19th c.]
      The train will pull in at midday.
      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
        We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. […] As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.
    12. (informal) A service on a railway line.
    13. A long, heavy sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, etc.
    14. (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?
    15. (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.]
      • 2005, Violet Blue, Best Women's Erotica 2006: Volume 2001, link ↗:
        “You want us to run a train on you?”
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Portuguese: trenzinho
  • Spanish: trenecito
Verb

train (trains, present participle training; simple 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 (someone) by practice; to educate (someone).
    You can't train a pig to write poetry.
  3. (intransitive) To improve one's fitness.
    I trained with weights all winter.
  4. (intransitive) 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.
  7. (transitive, ML) To feed data into an algorithm, usually based on a neural network, to create a machine learning model that can perform some task.
  8. (transitive, mining) To trace (a lode or any mineral appearance) to its head.
  9. (transitive, video games) To create a trainer for; to apply cheats to (a game).
    • 2021, Mark J. P. Wolf, Encyclopedia of Video Games:
      In the mid-1980s, demoparties were also copyparties, where the first so called hot releases of cracked and trained games changed hands. However, illegal software copying later disappeared […]
  10. (transitive, obsolete) To draw (something) along; to trail, to drag (something).
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:
      In hollow cube / Training his devilish enginery.
  11. (intransitive, obsolete, of clothing) To trail down or along the ground.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English trayne, from Anglo-Norman traine, Middle French traïne, from traïr ("to betray").

Noun

train

  1. (uncountable, obsolete) Treachery; deceit. [14th]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:
      In the meane time, through that false Ladies traine / He was surprisd, and buried under beare, / Ne ever to his worke returnd againe [...].
  2. (countable, obsolete) A trick or stratagem. [14th]
  3. (countable, obsolete) A trap for animals, a snare; (figuratively) a trap in general. [14th]
  4. (countable, obsolete) A lure; a decoy. [15th]
  5. (countable, obsolete, falconry) A live bird, handicapped or disabled in some way, provided for a young hawk to kill as training or enticement.
  6. (countable, obsolete) A clue or trace.
Verb

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

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To draw by persuasion, artifice, or the like; to attract by stratagem; to entice; to allure.
    • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:
      O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note.
    • c. 1626 or 1629–1633 (first performance), [John Ford], 'Tis Pitty Shee's a Whore […], London: […] Nicholas Okes for Richard Collins, […], published 1633, →OCLC ↗, Act V, signature I2, verso ↗:
      O doe not goe, this feaſt (I'le gage my life) / Is but a plot to trayne you to your ruine, / Be rul'd, you ſha'not goe.
    • 1825 June 21, [Walter Scott], Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC ↗:
      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.
  2. (obsolete, colloquial) To be on intimate terms with.
Etymology 3

From Dutch traan, from Middle Dutch trâen, from odt trān, from Proto-Germanic *trahnuz.

Noun

train (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) train oil, whale oil.
Train
Etymology

As an English surname, from the noun train.

Proper noun
  1. Surname.


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