What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Rail vs Curse - What's the difference?

rail | curse |

As verbs the difference between rail and curse

is that rail is to travel by railway or rail can be to complain violently ((against), (about)) or rail can be (label) to gush, flow (of liquid) while curse is .

As a noun rail

is a horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing or rail can be any of several birds in the family rallidae or rail can be (obsolete) an item of clothing; a cloak or other garment; a dress.

rail

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), ; see regular.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing.
  • * , chapter=7
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail , close to the stern.}}
  • The metal bar that makes the track for a railroad.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme
  • A railroad; a railway.
  • A horizontal piece of wood that serves to separate sections of a door or window.
  • (surfing) One of the lengthwise edges of a surfboard.
  • * Nick Carroll, surfline.com [http://www.surfline.com/community/whoknows/10_21_rails.cfm]:
  • Rails alone can only ever have a marginal effect on a board's general turning ability.
    Derived terms
    * guardrail * handrail * live rail * railcard * railfanning * railhead * railway * ride the rails * split rail * third rail

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To travel by railway.
  • * Rudyard Kipling
  • Mottram of the Indian Survey had ridden thirty and railed one hundred miles from his lonely post in the desert
  • To enclose with rails or a railing.
  • * Ayliffe
  • It ought to be fenced in and railed .
  • To range in a line.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • They were brought to London all railed in ropes, like a team of horses in a cart.

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun) (Rallidae) (Rallidae)
  • Any of several birds in the family Rallidae.
  • Usage notes

    Not all birds in the family Rallidae are rails by their common name. The family also includes coots]], moorhens, crakes, flufftails, [[waterhen, waterhens and others.
    Derived terms
    * banded rail

    See also

    * corncrake

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) railler.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To complain violently ((against), (about)).
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=June 4 , author=Lewis Smith , title=Queen's English Society says enuf is enough, innit? , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=The Queen may be celebrating her jubilee but the Queen's English Society, which has railed against the misuse and deterioration of the English language, is to fold.}}
  • * 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.

    Etymology 4

    From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .

    Alternative forms

    *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) An item of clothing; a cloak or other garment; a dress.
  • (obsolete) Specifically, a woman's headscarf or neckerchief.
  • (Fairholt)
    Derived terms
    * night-rail

    Etymology 5

    Probably from (etyl) raier, (etyl) raier.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To gush, flow (of liquid).
  • *, Bk.V, Ch.iv:
  • *: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.
  • Anagrams

    * * * * * * English terms with multiple etymologies ----

    curse

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia curse) (en noun)
  • A supernatural detriment or hindrance; a bane.
  • A prayer or imprecation that harm may befall someone.
  • The cause of great harm, evil, or misfortune; that which brings evil or severe affliction; torment.
  • * Shakespeare
  • The common curse of mankind, folly and ignorance.
  • A vulgar epithet.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author= Sam Leith
  • , volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where the profound meets the profane , passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses ", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.}}
  • (slang) A woman's menses.
  • Derived terms

    * curse of Scotland

    Verb

  • (lb) To place a curse upon (a person or object).
  • *
  • *:Captain Edward Carlisle; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed' the fate which had assigned such a duty, ' cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
  • To call upon divine or supernatural power to send injury upon; to imprecate evil upon; to execrate.
  • *Bible, (w) xxii. 28
  • *:Thou shalt notcurse the ruler of thy people.
  • (lb) To speak or shout a vulgar curse or epithet.
  • (lb) To use offensive or morally inappropriate language.
  • *Bible, (w) xxi. 74
  • *:Then began he to curse and to swear.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:His spirits hear me, / And yet I need must curse .
  • To bring great evil upon; to be the cause of serious harm or unhappiness to; to furnish with that which will be a cause of deep trouble; to afflict or injure grievously; to harass or torment.
  • *(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • *:On impious realms and barbarous kings impose / Thy plagues, and curse 'em with such sons as those.
  • Synonyms

    * (sense) swear

    Antonyms

    * bless

    Anagrams

    * * * ----