railroads

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of railroad.

   By the 1880s, competing railroads linked the coasts and reshaped the national economy.

   Several regional railroads merged to form a single freight carrier.

   Note

   A plural that most often counts companies rather than lengths of track: competing railroads, regional railroads that merge. The word belongs to American usage, and to Philippine usage as well for the track itself. The figurative noun, a procedure rushed through without due consideration, can be pluralized too, and it shares its sense of haste with the verb form.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of railroad.

   The committee chair routinely railroads controversial measures through with little debate.

   The company railroads new hires into signing contracts before they can read them.

   Note

   The -s form serves two very different verbs, and the object tells them apart. With an object, it means either hauling goods by rail or forcing something ahead: a chair railroads a bill through, a firm railroads recruits into signing. Without an object, it describes a life on the rails, such as running a line, working for one, riding it, or keeping it as a hobby.

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