train
Pluraltrains
Pluraltrains
Formstrains, training, trained
- 1A line of connected railway cars that carries passengers or goods, pulled by a locomotive or driven by its own motors; also the service running at a set time (the 7:42 train).
The train pulled into the station ten minutes late.
Freight trains haul coal across the entire country.
UsageUse by train for the means of travel: we went by train. Also say on the train or take the train.
Note
The power behind it has changed from steam to diesel and electricity, but the word has stayed with the line of linked carriages.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Diesel and electric locomotives replaced steam locomotives. en.wikipedia.org
- The word train has continued to denote linked railway carriages through changes in propulsion. en.wiktionary.org
- 2To teach a person or animal a skill or way of behaving through repeated practice and instruction.
The academy trains pilots for both military and civilian roles.
Master craftsmen train apprentices over many years.
UsageOften train someone to do something, or as something: she was trained as a nurse.
- 3To prepare yourself by regular practice or exercise, to build or keep up a skill or physical fitness.
Concert pianists train daily to keep their technique sharp.
He trained for months to perfect his free throws.
UsageUsually train for a goal: train for a marathon. Train as names a job: train as a doctor.
Less common meanings
- 4To feed data into an algorithm, usually a neural network, so it builds a model that can perform a task.
Researchers train neural networks on enormous text datasets.
The team trained the system to translate between five languages.
UsageYou train a model on data: trained on millions of images.
Note
Sheera Frenkel and Stuart A. Thompson report lawsuits accusing AI companies of training their systems on artists' work. In practice, training means adjusting the model's parameters over many passes to reduce its errors on the task.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Sheera Frenkel and Stuart A. Thompson reported lawsuits accusing AI companies of training systems on artists’ work. thelivinglib.org
- Training commonly involves repeatedly adjusting model parameters. developers.google.com
- 5To keep something such as a camera, a light, a weapon, or one's gaze pointed steadily at a particular target.
News crews train their cameras on the courthouse doors whenever a verdict is expected.
Two officers kept their weapons trained on the car until the driver stepped out.
UsageUse on, or formally upon: train a camera on the door; all eyes trained on the stage.
Similaraim, point, focus, level
Note
It grew out of the gunner's work of swinging a gun round to aim it, and weapons remain its classic object, often in the participle, as in rifles trained on the crowd. With eyes and attention it suggests fixed, watchful concentration: all eyes were trained on the stage.
- 6A connected series of thoughts, events, or circumstances, including a set of consequences that follow from something.
The interruption broke her train of thought completely.
He followed a careful train of reasoning to the obvious conclusion.
UsageMostly in train of thought and train of events: I lost my train of thought.
Similarchain, sequence, series, line
Note
Rory Carroll, writing in The Guardian, describes a man asking "Where was I?" as he loses his train of thought. Darwin writes of a frown appearing at an obstacle in a train of reasoning.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Carroll attribution and quotation. theguardian.com
- Darwin describes a frown appearing when reasoning encounters an obstacle. gutenberg.org
- 7The elongated back section of a dress or skirt that drags along the ground behind the wearer.
Her wedding gown had a train so long that two attendants carried it.
The dress featured an embroidered train that swept across the floor.
Note
A train is what is drawn along behind. That is why a bridesmaid can step on one, and why Washington Irving pictures a lady holding hers up in bad weather. The same idea of drawing something along links it with retinues, processions and railway carriages.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Irving describes a lady holding up her train in bad weather. en.wikisource.org
- 8A line of people, animals, or vehicles moving along one after another, such as a procession or the attendants following an important person.
A train of mourners followed the carriage through the streets.
The merchant's train of pack mules wound through the mountain pass.
UsageUsually a train of followed by the people or animals: a train of mules.
Similarprocession, line, column, caravan, retinue
- 9To guide a plant's or branch's growth, usually with pruning and bending, so that it develops in a chosen direction or shape.
Like guiding ivy along a wire so it climbs where you choose.
Gardeners train the vine along the fence each spring.
You can train a young tree to grow flat against a wall.
UsageUse along, over or against: train a vine along a fence.
Note
A vine is trained over a pergola, and Francis Jeffrey's Edinburgh Review of 1805 has young branches trained "to the right hand or to the left." The plant does the growing. The gardener's work is pruning, tying and bending until it takes the intended shape, as in espalier.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Espalier involves guiding plant growth through pruning, tying and positioning branches. hort.extension.wisc.edu
- 10To carry goods or people from one place to another by railway.
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 RideNote
A verb made directly from the railway train, and it sits naturally beside truck. In Ion L. Idriess's Lasseter's Last Ride (1931), a plane is trucked to Alice Springs and then "trained to Adelaide."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Ion L. Idriess wrote Lasseter's Last Ride. en.wikipedia.org
- The book describes transporting a plane by truck to Alice Springs and then by railway to Adelaide, using the quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
- 11A set of connected mechanical parts that operate one another in sequence.
Like a relay team passing a baton, each part driving the next in turn.
The clock's gear train transferred energy from the spring to the hands.
Engineers redesigned the valve train to reduce friction at high speeds.
UsageUsually in compounds: gear train, valve train, drive train.
- 12The troops and vehicles that travel behind an army, hauling the artillery and other gear needed in battle or in a siege.
Like a logistics convoy trailing a modern army with fuel and ammunition.
The army's baggage train fell behind in the mud.
The siege train rolled toward the city walls with its heavy cannon.
UsageOften baggage train or siege train.
Note
Military usage keeps the word's root picture of something drawn along behind. The train follows and supports the army, hauling the artillery and equipment that a battle or siege requires. It is a body distinct from the main fighting troops. Like a noble's retinue, it is defined by whom it follows.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The word's etymological root concerns drawing or pulling. en.wiktionary.org
- A military train follows an army and carries artillery and equipment for battle or siege. en.wiktionary.org
- The train's principal function is logistical support, but its personnel can also fight. Britain's Second Battalion Military Train served as light cavalry. iwm.org.uk
- Train also denotes the retinue following a noble or other important person. en.wiktionary.org
- 13A glowing trail left in the sky after a meteor passes, or the tail of dust and gas that streams from a comet as it nears the sun.
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 Guillemin, James GlaisherNote
Tail is the everyday synonym, and train is the word older writers on the sky reach for. Amédée Guillemin's The World of Comets (1877) records that when the train points toward the sun, ancient astronomers called it the comet's beard. Camille Flammarion's Popular Astronomy speaks of the "caudal train" forming as vapors are driven back from the head.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Amédée Guillemin's The World of Comets appeared in English in 1877. lindahall.org
- Guillemin records that ancient astronomers called a sunward-pointing train the comet's beard. archive.org
- Camille Flammarion's Popular Astronomy describes vapours being driven back beside the head as the 'caudal train' begins. en.wiktionary.org
- 14
- 15A sexual act in which a series of men line up to penetrate one person, especially as a form of gang rape.
Prosecutors argued that the defendants lured her to the apartment intending to run a train on her.
Several of the men later admitted they had run a train on her, and all of them were charged with rape.
UsageUsually in the phrase run a train on someone.
Note
Sexual slang with a brutal edge, usually in the form several men run a train on someone. Violet Blue's Best Women's Erotica 2006 uses it in that form. Because the word so often names gang rape, it is rarely a neutral or playful term.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Best Women's Erotica 2006 is associated with Violet Blue. saskiawalker.co.uk
- Best Women's Erotica 2006 contains the construction 'run a train on someone'. en.wiktionary.org
- 16A fixed schedule on which successive software releases are shipped.
Like a scheduled ferry: features that miss the departure wait for the following run.
The new feature missed this month's release train.
Our team ships updates on a six-week train.
UsageMostly in release train: the feature missed the release train.
Similarcadence, cycle, schedule
Note
Software teams borrowed the image of the railway train. A release train leaves on schedule, and any change that is not ready waits for the next departure. JUNOS For Dummies (2008) speaks of supporting "different software versions or release trains," treating each train as a line of releases to maintain.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The software expression uses a railway-train metaphor. developer.chrome.com
- Scheduled releases proceed while unfinished features wait for a subsequent release. blog.chromium.org
- JUNOS For Dummies was first published in 2008. oreilly.com
- The book contains the quoted words in a question about supporting software versions. en.wiktionary.org
- 17A bird's long trailing tail or display feathers, such as the peacock's, whose train grows from the feathers above its true tail.
The peacock fanned out its shimmering train during the display.
A pheasant's train can grow remarkably long in mature males.
Similartail
Note
A word for plumage, used where the feathers are long and showy: the peacock, the lyre-bird, and the bird whose green plumes once crowned Aztec and Mayan kings. Shakespeare's Henry VI puts it right beside tail. Talbot sweeps along his tail like a peacock, and his enemies vow to take away his train. The two words are close, but train suits a display.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Lyrebirds have long, ornate tail feathers used in display. australian.museum
- The unnamed bird is the resplendent quetzal, whose males have green plumage and a long train. kernaudubonsociety.org
- Maya and Aztec rulers wore headdresses made with quetzal plumes. datazone.birdlife.org
- Henry VI, Part 1 places 'tail' beside 'train' in a peacock comparison concerning Talbot; Pucelle, his enemy, speaks the lines. folger.edu
- 18To create a cheat patch for a video game, or to apply such cheats to it.
Like slipping a hidden cheat sheet into a board game so you always win.
Cracking groups in the 1980s would often train a game before releasing it, adding cheats such as infinite lives or a level skip.
The copy passed around on bulletin boards had been cracked and trained, with a start menu offering infinite ammo and a level select.
Note
The verb comes from the noun trainer, a small cheat program, so to train a game is to make or apply one. Its participle is often paired with cracked. Mark J. P. Wolf's Encyclopedia of Video Games recalls 1980s demoparties where "cracked and trained games changed hands." Here a trained game is one that has been altered, not one that has learned anything.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- A trainer is a cheat program. en.wikipedia.org
- Mark J. P. Wolf is responsible for the encyclopedia as its editor. bloomsbury.com
- The first edition appeared in 2012; 2021 identifies the second edition. bloomsbury.com
- The encyclopedia describes 1980s demoparties using the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
- 19A trail or line of something laid along the ground, especially a line of gunpowder.
The saboteur laid a train of powder from the door to the magazine.
A spark caught the train and the whole line flared up at once.
Note
Gunpowder is the classic case. Charlotte Mary Yonge tells of Guy Fawkes waiting to set fire to the train of gunpowder. A lit train carries fire along its length, and that idea of something set in motion turns figurative in Thomas Jefferson's 1785 hope that emancipation "is put into such a train." That figurative use comes close to a connected series of events.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Charlotte Mary Yonge describes Guy Fawkes preparing to ignite a train of gunpowder. gutenberg.org
- A gunpowder train transmits fire along its length. en.wikipedia.org
- Thomas Jefferson used the quoted phrase about emancipation in 1785. tjrs.monticello.org
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24Any creature's tail.
- 25The track or path left by an animal.
- 26Bait or a scented object pulled over the ground to leave a path that draws an animal after it.
- 27A horse's pace or way of moving.
- 28To follow an ore vein or other mineral sign back to its source.
- 29To pull something along behind.
In hollow cube / Training his devilish enginery.
1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost - 30Of a long garment or similar thing, to sweep behind over the floor.
- 31Betrayal or trickery.
- 32A clever scheme meant to fool someone.
- 33A snare for catching animals, or any kind of trap.
- 34Bait or a fake animal used to draw prey in.
- 35A disabled or tethered live bird offered to a young hawk as killing practice or as bait.
- 36A sign or hint of something.
- 37To lure someone by coaxing or trickery.
O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note.
c. 1594, William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors” - 38To be close friends or lovers with someone.
- 39Oil rendered from whale blubber.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of train apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Latin trahō ("to pull, to draw"), perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root *tregʰ- ("to pull, draw, drag"), lies behind Old French traïner ("to pull out, to draw"), which produced the noun train ("a delay, a drawing out"). English took this into Middle English, where the verb was later formed from the noun.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Latin trahō means to pull or draw. en.wiktionary.org
- The proposed Proto-Indo-European origin is *tregʰ-, meaning to pull, draw or drag. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin trahō is the ultimate Latin source of Old French traïner. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French traïner meant to pull out or draw and produced the noun train, meaning a delay or drawing out. en.wiktionary.org
- English borrowed the noun from Old French during the Middle English period. en.wiktionary.org
- The English verb was subsequently derived from the noun in Middle English. en.wiktionary.org