Rain vs Rail - What's the difference?
rain | rail |
Condensed water falling from a cloud.
(figuratively) Any matter moving or falling, usually through air, and especially if liquid or otherwise figuratively identifiable with raindrops.
(figuratively) An instance of particles or larger pieces of matter moving or falling through air.
(impersonal) To have rain fall from the sky.
To fall as or like rain.
* Shakespeare
To fall in large quantities.
To issue (something) in large quantities.
A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing.
* , chapter=7
, title= 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= 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]:
To travel by railway.
* Rudyard Kipling
To enclose with rails or a railing.
* Ayliffe
To range in a line.
* Francis Bacon
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
* 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 27:
(obsolete) An item of clothing; a cloak or other garment; a dress.
(obsolete) Specifically, a woman's headscarf or neckerchief.
(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.
As nouns the difference between rain and rail
is that rain is while 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.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).rain
English
Noun
(en-noun)- We've been having a lot of rain lately .
- The rains came late that year.
- A rain of mortar fire fell on our trenches.
Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Usage notes
* shower, downpour, drop are some of the words used to count rain.Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
en verb)- It will rain today.
- The rain it raineth every day.
- Tears rained from her eyes.
- Bombs rained from the sky.
- The boxer rained punches on his opponent's head.
Derived terms
* Also see * it never rains but it pours * rain cats and dogs, rain dogs and cats * rain down * rain offSee also
* drizzle * hail * mizzle * precipitation * serein * shower * sleet * snow * storm *Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----rail
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), ; see regular.Noun
(en noun)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.}}
Ideas coming down the track, passage=A “moving platform” scheme
- 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 railVerb
(en verb)- Mottram of the Indian Survey had ridden thirty and railed one hundred miles from his lonely post in the desert
- It ought to be fenced in and railed .
- They were brought to London all railed in ropes, like a team of horses in a cart.
Etymology 2
(etyl) .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 railSee also
* corncrakeEtymology 3
From (etyl) railler.Verb
(en verb)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.}}
- 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)- (Fairholt)