rails

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of rail.

   Crews replaced the worn rails before the high-speed line reopened.

   She gripped the brass rails as the ship rolled in the heavy swell.

   Note

   A regular plural that gathers very different objects: the bars of a railing, the metal lines of a track, and the horizontal pieces dividing a door or window. In electronics, a circuit's rails are its conductors held at fixed potentials. On a surfboard, the rails are its lengthwise edges. Because these meanings sit so far apart, the surrounding words usually settle which one is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of rail.

   The columnist rails against corporate greed in nearly every piece she writes.

   He rails at the referee from the sidelines for the entire match.

   Note

   The same spelling serves the plural noun, so syntax decides: after a singular subject, rails is a verb. It takes against or at when it voices sustained complaint. It also works transitively, as when a gardener rails a plot to enclose it, and intransitively, for traveling by rail. Two slang uses call for care in casual contexts: one is vulgar and sexual, and the other means snorting powdered drugs.

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