Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Railroad \Rail"road`\ (r[=a]l"r[=o]d`), Railway \Rail"way`\ (r[=a]l"w[=a]`), n.
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A road or way consisting of one or more parallel series of iron or steel rails, patterned and adjusted to be tracks for the wheels of vehicles, and suitably supported on a bed or substructure.
Note: The modern railroad is a development and adaptation of the older tramway.
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The road, track, etc., with all the lands, buildings, rolling stock, franchises, etc., pertaining to them and constituting one property; as, a certain railroad has been put into the hands of a receiver. Note: Railway is the commoner word in England; railroad the commoner word in the United States. Note: In the following and similar phrases railroad and railway are used interchangeably: Atmospheric railway, Elevated railway, etc. See under Atmospheric, Elevated, etc. Cable railway. See Cable road, under Cable. Ferry railway, a submerged track on which an elevated platform runs, for carrying a train of cars across a water course. Gravity railway, a railway, in a hilly country, on which the cars run by gravity down gentle slopes for long distances after having been hauled up steep inclines to an elevated point by stationary engines. Railway brake, a brake used in stopping railway cars or locomotives. Railway car, a large, heavy vehicle with flanged wheels fitted for running on a railway. [U.S.] Railway carriage, a railway passenger car. [Eng.] Railway scale, a platform scale bearing a track which forms part of the line of a railway, for weighing loaded cars. Railway slide. See Transfer table, under Transfer. Railway spine (Med.), an abnormal condition due to severe concussion of the spinal cord, such as occurs in railroad accidents. It is characterized by ataxia and other disturbances of muscular function, sensory disorders, pain in the back, impairment of general health, and cerebral disturbance, -- the symptoms often not developing till some months after the injury. Underground railroad Underground railway.
A railroad or railway running through a tunnel, as beneath the streets of a city.
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Formerly, a system of co["o]peration among certain active antislavery people in the United States prior to 1866, by which fugitive slaves were secretly helped to reach Canada.
Note: [In the latter sense railroad, and not railway, was usually used.] ``Their house was a principal entrep[^o]t of the underground railroad.''
--W. D. Howells.
Elevated \El"e*va`ted\, a. Uplifted; high; lofty; also, animated; noble; as, elevated thoughts.
Elevated railway, one in which the track is raised considerably above the ground, especially a city railway above the line of street travel.
WordNet
n. an electric elevated railway [syn: elevated railroad, el, overhead railway]
Wikipedia
An elevated railway (also known as El rail of simply El for short, and, in Europe, as overhead railway) is a rapid transit railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed of steel, concrete, or brick). The railway may be standard gauge, narrow gauge, light rail, monorail, or a suspension railway. Elevated railways are usually used in urban areas where there would otherwise be a large number of level crossings. Most of the time, the tracks of elevated railways that run on steel viaducts can be seen from street level.
Usage examples of "elevated railway".
But more than a few blocks away, north of the raucous automobile traffic and elevated railway on 86th Street, was a strange unknown territory, off-limits to my wanderings.
In the daytime, from Fourteenth Street to Twenty-third Street, the avenue is in perpetual shadow from the Elevated Railway.
But then he raced up the rattling iron steps of the elevated railway station.
He glances a couple of blocks downtown at the abandoned elevated railway tracks jutting out onto the Avenue.
But he was looking down upon the platform of the elevated railway.
The car, with its powerful supermotor, grazed the steel of the elevated railway columns.
They cut across into Sixth Avenue, and walked up the stairs to the station of the Elevated Railway.
On his bedside table there were photographs of his wife and a portrait photo of their married son Bruno, who worked for the Schnell-Bahn, the elevated railway that was owned by the East and went through both parts of Berlin.
There, he transferred to the Bowery & Third Avenue elevated railway, paying another twenty cents.
Noises that made their ears ring and icicles roll down their spines now worried them no more than passing elevated railway trains bother a dweller in the Bronx.
Construction work was being done on a near-by street, under the elevated railway.