train

Elongated or trailing portion.

Noun

  1. Elongated or trailing portion.
    • Unfortunately, the leading bridesmaid stepped on the bride's train as they were walking down the aisle.
    • 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 [...]. - 1803 (date written), [Jane Austen],...
    • 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. -...

    1. The elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground.

    2. A trail or line of something, especially gunpowder.

      • [E]mancipation is put into such a train that in a few years there will be no slaves Northward of Maryland. - 1785, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Richard Price:
      • 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...

    3. The tail of a bird.

      • 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. - 1591 (date written), William...
      • 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...
      • 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! - 1917, William Henry Fitchett, Australia in the...

    4. (obsolete) The tail of an animal in general.

    5. (poetic) The elongated body or form of something narrow and winding, such as the course of a river or the body of a snake.

    6. (astronomy) 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.

      • 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...
      • 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. - 1877, Amédée...
      • ...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. - 2014, Camille Flammarion, Popular...

    7. (now rare) An animal's trail or track.

    8. (obsolete, hunting) Something dragged or laid along the ground to form a trail of scent or food along which to lure an animal.

    9. (obsolete) Gait or manner of running of a horse.

  2. Connected sequence of people or things.
    • Sir, I invite your Highness and your train / To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest /For this one night - 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies,...
    • The imperial train arrived on November 22 at Te-chou, a city in western Shantung along the border of Chihli. - 1979, Silas H. L. Wu, Passage to Power: Kʻang-hsi and His Heir Apparent, 1661-1722, Harvard University...
    • 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. - 2009, Anne Easter Smith, The King's Grace:

    1. A group of people following an important figure such as a king or noble; a retinue, a group of retainers.

    2. A group of animals, vehicles, or people that follow one another in a line, such as a wagon train; a caravan or procession.

      • Our party formed a train at the funeral parlor before departing for the burial.

    3. (figuratively, poetic) A group or class of people.

      • Theſe are the cruel pirates of Argier, That damned train, the ſcum of Affrica, […] - c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […]...

    4. (military) The men and vehicles following an army, which carry artillery and other equipment for battle or siege.

    5. A sequence of events or ideas which are interconnected; a course or procedure of something.

      • 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...
      • Failure to acknowledge an A.T.C. warning or excessive speed starts the same train of events until correction is made. - 1960 November, P. Ransome=Wallis, “Modern motive power of the German Federal Railway: Part Three”,...
      • "Where was I?" he asked several times during the lunch, losing his train of thought. - 2012 June 18, Rory Carroll, The Guardian:

    6. A set of things, events, or circumstances that follow after or as a consequence; aftermath, wake.

      • 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. - 1907, Margaret McMillan, Labour and Childhood, page 120:

    7. (obsolete) State of progress, status, situation (in phrases introduced by in a + adjective); also proper order or situation (introduced by in or in a alone).

      • in a fair / better / worse train
      • As we had been in a good train for several days past, I thought it not prudent to break with him, for little matters. - 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXVI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume...
      • 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...

    8. A set of interconnected mechanical parts which operate each other in sequence.

    9. A series of electrical pulses.

    10. A series of specified vehicles (originally tramcars in a mine as usual, later especially railway carriages) coupled together.

    11. 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.

      • on a train
      • The train for Edinburgh will leave in 5 minutes.
      • The train arrived at the station.

    12. (informal) A service on a railway line.

    13. A long, heavy sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, etc.

    14. (computing) A software release schedule.

      • What steps do development engineers follow when adding new feature code? How do they support different software versions or release trains? - 2008, Michael Bushong, Cathy Gadecki, Aviva Garrett, JUNOS For Dummies, page...

    15. (sex, slang) An act wherein series of men line up and then penetrate a person, especially as a form of gang rape.

      • “You want us to run a train on you?” - 2005, Violet Blue, Best Women's Erotica 2006: Volume 2001, link:

    16. (colloquial, with on the) A specified topic, behavior, interest or inclination.

      • She doesn't come around any more, cuz she had a kid. She's on the family train now.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ-der.? Latin trahere Vulgar Latin *tragīnāre Old French traïnerder. Old French trainder. Middle English trayne English train 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)).

Forms

trains

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

Derived

accommodation train advanced train control system aerotrain antitrain armored train automatic train control autotrain back that train up battering train beamtrain 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 detrain does this train stop at Dotto train down train

Noun obsolete, uncountable

  1. Treachery; deceit.
    • In the meane time, through that false Ladies traine / He was surprisd, and buried under beare, / Ne ever to his worke returnd againe [...]. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […],...
  2. A trick or stratagem.
  3. A trap for animals, a snare; (figuratively) a trap in general.
  4. A lure; a decoy.
  5. A live bird, handicapped or disabled in some way, provided for a young hawk to kill as training or enticement.
  6. A clue or trace.

Origin

From Middle English trayne (“treachery”), from Anglo-Norman traine, Middle French traïne, from traïr (“to betray”).

Forms

trains

Noun obsolete, uncountable

  1. train oil, whale oil

Origin

From Dutch traan (“tear, drop”), from Middle Dutch trâen, from Old Dutch trān, from Proto-West Germanic *trahnu (“tear”). Compare German Träne (“tear”), Tran (“train oil”).

Derived

train oil trainy

Verb Entry 4

  1. To practice an ability.
    • She trained seven hours a day to prepare for the Olympics.
  2. To teach and form (someone) by practice; to educate (someone).
    • You can't train a pig to write poetry.
    • The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was...
  3. To improve one's fitness.
    • I trained with weights all winter.
  4. To proceed in sequence.
  5. To move (a gun) laterally so that it points in a different direction.
    • The assassin had trained his gun on the minister.
  6. To encourage (a plant or branch) to grow in a particular direction or shape, usually by pruning and bending.
    • The vine had been trained over the pergola.
    • He trains the young branches to the right hand or to the left. - 1805, Francis Jeffrey, The Edinburgh Review:
  7. To feed data into an algorithm, usually based on a neural network, to create a machine learning model that can perform some task.
    • At least 10 lawsuits have been filed this year against A.I. companies, accusing them of training their systems on artists’ creative work without consent. - 2023 July 15, Sheera Frenkel, Stuart A. Thompson, “‘Not for...
  8. To transport (something) by train.
    • Colson was to truck the 'plane to Alice Springs, where it would be trained to Adelaide for repairs. - 1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 46:
  9. To trace (a lode or any mineral appearance) to its head.
  10. To create a trainer (cheat patch) for; to apply cheats to (a game).
    • I got a twix on the 128 version being fixed and trained by Mad Max at M2K BBS 208-587-7636 in Mountain Home Idaho. He fixes many games and puts them on his board. One of my sources for games and utils. - 2000, Sensei...
    • In the mid-1980s, demoparties were also copyparties, where the first so called hot releases of cracked and trained games changed hands. However, illegal software copying later disappeared […] - 2021, Mark J. P. Wolf,...
  11. To draw (something) along; to trail, to drag (something).
    • [I]t pleaſed the grekes at that tyme to ſe yͤ body of Hector ſo trayned by Achilles⸝ bycauſe he was wont to be ſo redoubtab[l]e to them⸝ […] - 1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave],...
    • In hollow cube / Training his devilish enginery. - 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias...
  12. To trail down or along the ground.

Forms

trains training trained

Related

exercise work out

Derived

entrain housetrain mistrain outtrain overtrain potty train potty-train pretrain retrain trainability trainable trainee trainer training train up undertrain untrain uptrain voice train weight-train weight training

Verb obsolete, transitive

  1. To draw by persuasion, artifice, or the like; to attract by stratagem; to entice; to allure.
    • If but a dozen French / Were there in arms, they would be as a call / To train ten thousand English to their side. - c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William...
    • O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note. - c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • O doe not goe, this feaſt (I'le gage my life) / Is but a plot to trayne you to your ruine, / Be rul'd, you ſha'not goe. - c. 1626 or 1629–1633 (first performance), [John Ford], ’Tis Pitty Shee’s a Whore […], London: […]...
  2. To be on intimate terms with.

Forms

trains training trained