derail
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From French dérailler (“to go off the rails”). Analyzable as de- + rail.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]derail (plural derails)
- Synonym of derailer: A device placed on railway tracks in order to cause a train to derail.
- The derail was placed deliberately so that the train would fall into the river.
- An instance of diverting a conversation or debate from its original topic.
Verb
[edit]derail (third-person singular simple present derails, present participle derailing, simple past and past participle derailed)
- (transitive) To cause to come off the tracks.
- The train was destroyed when it was derailed by the collision.
- 1940 November, “Notes and News: A Highland Collision”, in Railway Magazine, page 612:
- Among recommendations arising out of the accident were that greater attention should be devoted to the means of derailing runaways on lines so heavily graded as the Highland main line; were it double throughout, catch points would, of course, be laid in, but the catchpoint problem is a difficult one on a single line.
- (intransitive) To come off the tracks.
- 2020 September 9, Paul Clifton, “Heavy rainfall causes landslip in Hampshire: At the scene...”, in Rail, page 10:
- Fortunately, the CrossCountry train did not derail when it struck the mud. It could easily have been much worse.
- (intransitive, figurative) To deviate from the previous course or direction.
- The conversation derailed once James brought up politics.
- (transitive, figurative) To cause to deviate from a set course or direction.
- The protesting students derailed the professor's lecture.
Quotations
[edit]- For quotations using this term, see Citations:derail.
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- → Welsh: direilio
Translations
[edit]to come off the tracks
|
to deviate from the previous course or direction
to cause to deviate from a set course or direction
Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms derived from French
- English terms prefixed with de-
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/eɪl
- Rhymes:English/eɪl/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- English intransitive verbs
- English ergative verbs
- en:Rail transportation