train
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: trān
ipa: /tɹeɪn/
ipa: [t͡ʃʰɹeɪ̯n]
ipa: [t̠ɹ̠̊˔e̞ɪ̯n]
rhymes: -eɪn
Forms: form: trains
Etymology: From Middle English trayne (“train”), from Old French train (“a delay, a drawing out”), from traïner (“to pull out, to draw”), from Vulgar Latin *traginō, from *tragō, from Latin trahō (“to pull, to draw”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tregʰ- (“to pull, draw, drag”). The verb was derived from the noun in Middle English.
For the meaning to teach compare typologically Russian ната́скивать (natáskivatʹ) (akin to тащи́ть (taščítʹ)).
Senses: examples: text: Unfortunately, the leading bridesmaid stepped on the bride's train as they were walking down the aisle.
text: 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 [...].
ref: 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:
text: He was generally seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped in a pair of his father's cast-off galligaskins, which he had much ado to hold up with one hand, as a lady does her train in bad weather.
ref: 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rip Van Winkle:
text: Lace sleeves, a demure neckline, a full skirt and a relatively modest train.
ref: 2011 April 20, Imogen Fox, The Guardian:
glosses: Elongated or trailing portion.
The elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground.
examples: text: [E]mancipation is put into such a train that in a few years there will be no slaves Northward of Maryland.
ref: 1785, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Richard Price:
text: 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.
ref: 1873, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Aunt Charlotte's Stories of English History for the little ones:
glosses: Elongated or trailing portion.
A trail or line of something, especially gunpowder.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: The burning evening sun lighted with mellow gold the coats of the fierce little tiger-kittens — orange silk with stripes of black velvet — the broken amethysts and ruined emeralds of the poor bird's train cruelly scattered over the trampled grass
ref: 1894, Sir Edwin Arnold, Wandering Words, page 260:
text: Fawn and pearl of the lyre-bird's train, / Sheen of the bronze-wing, blue of the crane; / Cream of the plover, grey of the dove; / These are the hues of the land I love!
ref: 1917, William Henry Fitchett, Australia in the making, page xii:
text: Before the Spanish Conquest, the long, slender, green plumes of the male bird's train adorned the headgear of Aztec and Mayan kings and chieftains, as one may clearly see in modern restorations of ancient scenes.
ref: 1945, Nature Magazine, page 299:
glosses: Elongated or trailing portion.
The tail of a bird.
glosses: Elongated or trailing portion.
The tail of an animal in general.
glosses: Elongated or trailing portion.
The elongated body or form of something narrow and winding, such as the course of a river or the body of a snake.
examples: text: Finally, all men saw that astronomical knowledge lied not, and they awaited the comet. Its approach was not, at first, seemingly rapid; nor was its appearance of very unusual character. It was of a dull red, and had little perceptible train.
ref: 1839, Edgar Allan Poe, The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion:
text: It sometimes happens that the train is directed towards the sun, or makes a certain angle with the line joining the head and the sun; it was then called by the ancient astronomers the beard of the comet.
ref: 1877, Amédée Guillemin, James Glaisher, The World of Comets, page 200:
text: ...the comet expands, its vapours are developed and escape in jets towards the radiant star; then we see them driven back on each side of the head and the caudal train commencing.
ref: 2014, Camille Flammarion, Popular Astronomy, →ISBN, page 515:
topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
glosses: Elongated or trailing portion.
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.
glosses: Elongated or trailing portion.
An animal's trail or track.
topics: hobbies
hunting
lifestyle
glosses: Elongated or trailing portion.
Something dragged or laid along the ground to form a trail of scent or food along which to lure an animal.
glosses: Elongated or trailing portion.
Gait or manner of running of a horse.
examples: text: Sir, I invite your Highness and your train / To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest /For this one night
ref: 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]:
text: The imperial train arrived on November 22 at Te-chou, a city in western Shantung along the border of Chihli.
ref: 1979, Silas H. L. Wu, Passage to Power: Kʻang-hsi and His Heir Apparent, 1661-1722, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 78:
text: 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.
ref: 2009, Anne Easter Smith, The King's Grace:
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A group of people following an important figure such as a king or noble; a retinue, a group of retainers.
examples: text: Our party formed a train at the funeral parlor before departing for the burial.
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A group of animals, vehicles, or people that follow one another in a line, such as a wagon train; a caravan or procession.
examples: text: Theſe are the cruel pirates of Argier,
That damned train, the ſcum of Affrica, […]
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [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:
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A group or class of people.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
The men and vehicles following an army, which carry artillery and other equipment for battle or siege.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1872, Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals:
text: Failure to acknowledge an A.T.C. warning or excessive speed starts the same train of events until correction is made.
ref: 1960 November, P. Ransome=Wallis, “Modern motive power of the German Federal Railway: Part Three”, in Trains Illustrated, page 679:
text: "Where was I?" he asked several times during the lunch, losing his train of thought.
ref: 2012 June 18, Rory Carroll, The Guardian:
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A sequence of events or ideas which are interconnected; a course or procedure of something.
examples: text: Thus the development of reason is accompanied by no inner blight or withering. It does not bring in its train loss of faith or weakening of sympathies.
ref: 1907, Margaret McMillan, Labour and Childhood, page 120:
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A set of things, events, or circumstances that follow after or as a consequence; aftermath, wake.
examples: text: in a fair / better / worse train
text: As we had been in a good train for several days past, I thought it not prudent to break with him, for little matters.
ref: 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXVI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC, page 139:
text: 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.
ref: 1779, Samuel Jackson Pratt, chapter 7, in Shenstone-Green: or, the New Paradise Lost, volume 1, London: R. Baldwin, page 46:
text: 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.
text: […] every thing was now in a fairer train for Miss Crawford’s marrying Edmund than it had ever been before.
ref: 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter VI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 120-121:
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
State of progress, status, situation (in phrases introduced by in a + adjective); also proper order or situation (introduced by in or in a alone).
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A set of interconnected mechanical parts which operate each other in sequence.
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A series of electrical pulses.
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A series of specified vehicles (originally tramcars in a mine as usual, later especially railway carriages) coupled together.
examples: text: The train for Edinburgh will leave in 5 minutes.
text: The train arrived at the station.
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: This winter we thought we'd go to Venice by train, for the adventure.
ref: 2009 January 24, Hanif Kureishi, The Guardian:
text: A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
ref: 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A mechanical (originally 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.
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A service on a railway line.
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A long, heavy sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, etc.
examples: text: What steps do development engineers follow when adding new feature code? How do they support different software versions or release trains?
ref: 2008, Michael Bushong, Cathy Gadecki, Aviva Garrett, JUNOS For Dummies, page 16:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
A software release schedule.
examples: text: “You want us to run a train on you?”
ref: 2005, Violet Blue, Best Women's Erotica 2006: Volume 2001, link:
topics: lifestyle
sex
sexuality
glosses: Connected sequence of people or things.
An act wherein series of men line up and then penetrate a person, especially as a form of gang rape.
Hyponyms: ambulance train
ammunition train
armoured train
baggage train
block train
boat train
coal train
electric train
express train
fire train
freight train
goods train
macaroni train
mail train
milk train
mixed train
pack train
parliamentary train
parly train
passenger train
pay train
railroad train
railway train
road train
royal train
steam train
stopping train
subway train
supply train
through train
tram-train
troop train
tube train
underground train
vestibuled train
wagon train
work train
Derived terms: accommodation train
advanced train control system
armored train
automatic train control
back that train up
battering train
bullet train
cane train
cat train
choo choo train
choo-choo train
cold meat train
corridor train
crack train
cross-train
dead in the train
does this train stop at
Dotto train
down train
drivetrain
drive train
end-of-train
field train
foretrain
gear train
ghost train
gravy train
hog-train
hog train
house train
house-train
how do I get to the train station
hype train
in train
is this train going to
it ain't the whistle that pulls the train
it is not the whistle that pulls the train
it isn't the whistle that pulls the train
it's not the whistle that pulls the train
Jamaica train
land train
like a train
local train
magnetic levitation train
Mexican train
mixed train
mule train
one-man train
on the hog train
on-train
orphan train
owl train
pack-train
paper-train
pay train
person under train
planetary gear train
power train
puffer train
pull a train
quartermaster train
rail train
run a train
set in train
siege train
silver train
slow train
snow train
spike train
S-train
sushi train
that train has already left the station
that train has left the station
the whistle does not pull the train
the whistle doesn't pull the train
tidal train
time train
toilet-train
trackless train
train-bearer
train bombing
trainborne
train bottle
train captain
traincare
train crash
traincrew
train crew
train crossing
train ferry
train hopper
train hopping
trainiac
trainload
trainman
trainmaster
train mate
train-mate
train mile
train-of-four
train of thinking
train of thought
train of thoughts
train operating company
train order
train pipe
trainpipe
trainset
train set
train shed
trainshed
train sickness
train spacing
train spotter
train spotting
train station
train stop
train surf
train surfing
train ticket
train time
train track
train wreck
train-wreck
Trump train
vactrain
valve train
vestibule train
wave train
way-train
where does this train go