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Rail vs Derail - What's the difference?

rail | derail |

In lang=en terms the difference between rail and derail

is that rail is to range in a line while derail is to cause to deviate from a set course or direction.

As nouns the difference between rail and derail

is that 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 while derail is a device placed on railway tracks causing a train to derail.

As verbs the difference between rail and derail

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 derail is to cause to come off the tracks.

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
    Related terms
    * ralline

    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 ----

    derail

    English

    (wikipedia derail)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A device placed on railway tracks causing a train to derail.
    • The derail was placed deliberately so that the train would fall into the river.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause to come off the tracks.
    • The train was destroyed when it was derailed by the penny.
  • To come off the tracks.
  • To deviate from the previous course or direction.
    • The conversation derailed once James brought up politics.
  • To cause to deviate from a set course or direction.
    • The protesting students derailed the professor's lecture.

    Quotations

    * (English Citations of "derail")

    Derived terms

    * derailment

    Anagrams

    * * * * * English ergative verbs