ride the rods
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English
[edit]Verb
[edit]ride the rods (third-person singular simple present rides the rods, present participle riding the rods, simple past rode the rods, past participle ridden the rods)
- (US, slang) To travel illicitly by clinging to the supporting rods under a freight train.
- 1970, Colonel Red Reeder, Dinosaurs A to Z, published 2008:
- And a dangerous extracurricular activity had helped turn his muscles to iron: he “rode the rods” with other boys, clinging to the underframework of Union Pacific freight cars rumbling through Abilene.
- 2007, Rilla Askew, Harpsong:
- I nearly ran right into one jabbing his shotgun underneath the car, checking to see if somebody was under there riding the rods.