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 Reel - What's the difference?

rail | reel |

As nouns the difference between rail and reel

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 reel is real (reality).

As a verb 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).

As an adjective reel is

real (true, fact, not fictional).

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 ----

    reel

    English

    (wikipedia reel)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A lively dance of the Highlanders of Scotland; also, the music to the dance; -- often called Scotch reel.
  • A frame with radial arms, or a kind of spool, turning on an axis, on which yarn, threads, lines, or the like, are wound
  • a log reel , used by seamen
    an angler's reel
    a garden reel
  • A machine on which yarn is wound and measured into lays and hanks, -- for cotton or linen it is fifty-four inches in circuit; for worsted, thirty inches.
  • (McElrath)
  • A device consisting of radial arms with horizontal stats, connected with a harvesting machine, for holding the stalks of grain in position to be cut by the knives.
  • A short compilation of sample film work used as a demonstrative resume in the entertainment industry.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To wind on a reel.
  • To spin or revolve repeatedly.
  • To unwind, to bring or acquire something by spinning or winding something else.
  • He reeled off some tape from the roll and sealed the package.
  • To walk shakily or unsteadily; to stagger; move as if drunk or not in control of oneself.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
  • , title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=30 citation , passage=It was by his order the shattered leading company flung itself into the houses when the Sin Verguenza were met by an enfilading volley as they reeled into the calle.}}
  • * Bible, Psalms cvii. 27
  • They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • He, with heavy fumes oppressed, / Reeled from the palace, and retired to rest.
  • * Macaulay
  • the wagons reeling under the yellow sheaves
  • (reel back) To back off or step away unsteadily and quickly.
  • He reeled back from the punch.
  • To make or cause to reel.
  • To have a whirling sensation; to be giddy.
  • * Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • In these lengthened vigils his brain often reeled .
  • To be in shock.
  • * 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
  • New Jersey was reeling on Wednesday from the impact of Hurricane Sandy, which has caused catastrophic flooding here in Hoboken and in other New York City suburbs, destroyed entire neighborhoods across the state and wiped out iconic boardwalks in shore towns that had enchanted generations of vacationgoers.
  • (obsolete) To roll.
  • * Spenser
  • And Sisyphus an huge round stone did reel .

    Quotations

    ; to stagger * 1996 , , Virago Press, paperback edition, page 111 *: Sarah reels a little, nevertheless, under the dog's boisterous greeting.

    Derived terms

    * reel in * reel off

    Anagrams

    * * ----