Pronunciations (11)
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/ˈtɹeɪn/
Pronunciation notes
- Canadian
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
- Standard
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[ˈtɹ̝̊ʷeɪ̯n]
Pronunciation notes
- Canadian
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
- Standard
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[ˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷeɪ̯n]
Pronunciation notes
- Canadian
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
- Standard
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[ˈt̠͡ʃɹ̠̊˔ʷeɪ̯n]
Pronunciation notes
- Canadian
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
- Standard
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/ˈtɹæɪ̯n/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
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[ˈtɹ̝̊ʷæ̝ɪ̯n]
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
-
[ˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷæ̝ɪ̯n]
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
-
/ˈtɹɛjn/
Pronunciation notes
- British
- Southern
- Standard
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/ˈtɾen/
Pronunciation notes
- Scotland
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/ˈtɾein/
Pronunciation notes
- Wales
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tɹeɪn
Noun
Elongated or trailing portion. The elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground.
- Examples
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Unfortunately, the leading bridesmaid stepped on the bride's train as they were walking down the aisle.
More examples (2)
They called each other by their Christian name, were always arm in arm when they walked, pinned up each other's train for the dance, and were not to be divided in the set [...].
He was generally seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped in a pair of his father's cast-off galligaskins, which he had much ado to hold up with one hand, as a lady does her train in bad weather.
Lace sleeves, a demure neckline, a full skirt and a relatively modest train.
Elongated or trailing portion. A trail or line of something, especially gunpowder.
- Examples
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[E]mancipation is put into such a train that in a few years there will be no slaves Northward of Maryland.
More examples (1)
A party was sent to search, and there they found all the powder ready prepared, and, moreover, a man with a lantern, one Guy Fawkes, who had undertaken to be the one to set fire to the train of gunpowder, hoping to escape before the explosion.
Elongated or trailing portion. The tail of a bird.
- Examples
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More examples (4)
Let frantike Talbot triumph for a while, And like a Peacock ſweepe along his tayle, Wee’le pull his Plumes, and take away his Trayne, If Dolphin and the reſt will be but rul’d.
The burning evening sun lighted with mellow gold the coats of the fierce little tiger-kittens — orange silk with stripes of black velvet — the broken amethysts and ruined emeralds of the poor bird's train cruelly scattered over the trampled grass
Fawn and pearl of the lyre-bird's train, / Sheen of the bronze-wing, blue of the crane; / Cream of the plover, grey of the dove; / These are the hues of the land I love!
Before the Spanish Conquest, the long, slender, green plumes of the male bird's train adorned the headgear of Aztec and Mayan kings and chieftains, as one may clearly see in modern restorations of ancient scenes.
Elongated or trailing portion. The tail of an animal in general.
Usage- Obsolete
Elongated or trailing portion. The elongated body or form of something narrow and winding, such as the course of a river or the body of a snake.
Usage- Poetic
Elongated or trailing portion. A transient trail of glowing ions behind a large meteor as it falls through the atmosphere or accompanying a comet as it nears the sun; tail.
- Examples
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More examples (3)
Finally, all men saw that astronomical knowledge lied not, and they awaited the comet. Its approach was not, at first, seemingly rapid; nor was its appearance of very unusual character. It was of a dull red, and had little perceptible train.
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.
...the comet expands, its vapours are developed and escape in jets towards the radiant star; then we see them driven back on each side of the head and the caudal train commencing.
Elongated or trailing portion. An animal's trail or track.
Usage- Archaic
Elongated or trailing portion. Something dragged or laid along the ground to form a trail of scent or food along which to lure an animal.
Usage- Obsolete
Elongated or trailing portion. Gait or manner of running of a horse.
Usage- Obsolete
Connected sequence of people or things. A group of people following an important figure such as a king or noble; a retinue, a group of retainers.
- Examples
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Sir, I invite your Highness and your train / To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest /For this one night
The imperial train arrived on November 22 at Te-chou, a city in western Shantung along the border of Chihli.
More examples (1)
Grace was glad the citizenry did not know Katherine Gordon was in the king’s train, but she was beginning to understand Henry’s motive for including the pretender’s wife.
Connected sequence of people or things. A group of animals, vehicles, or people that follow one another in a line, such as a wagon train; a caravan or procession.
- Examples
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Our party formed a train at the funeral parlor before departing for the burial.
Connected sequence of people or things. A group or class of people.
Usage- Figurative
- Poetic
- Examples
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Theſe are the cruel pirates of Argier, That damned train, the ſcum of Affrica, […]
Connected sequence of people or things. The men and vehicles following an army, which carry artillery and other equipment for battle or siege.
Connected sequence of people or things. A sequence of events or ideas which are interconnected; a course or procedure of something.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
A man may be absorbed in the deepest thought, and his brow will remain smooth until he encounters some obstacle in his train of reasoning, or is interrupted by some disturbance, and then a frown passes like a shadow over his brow.
Failure to acknowledge an A.T.C. warning or excessive speed starts the same train of events until correction is made.
"Where was I?" he asked several times during the lunch, losing his train of thought.
Connected sequence of people or things. A set of things, events, or circumstances that follow after or as a consequence; aftermath, wake.
- Examples
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Thus the development of reason is accompanied by no inner blight or withering. It does not bring in its train loss of faith or weakening of sympathies.
Connected sequence of people or things. State of progress, status, situation (in phrases introduced by in a + adjective); also proper order or situation (introduced by in or in a alone).
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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in a fair / better / worse train
As we had been in a good train for several days past, I thought it not prudent to break with him, for little matters.
More examples (3)
I took care that my absence should neither be lamented by the poor nor the rich. I put every thing in a fair train of going on smoothly, and actually set out, with my steward, for my estate in Wales at dawning of the day.
1787, George Washington, letter to Alexander Hamilton dated 10 July, 1787, in The Writings of George Washington, Boston: American Stationers’ Company, 1837, Volume 9, p. 260, When I refer you to the state of the counsels, which prevailed at the period you left this city, and add that they are now if possible in a worse train than ever, you will find but little ground on which the hope of a good establishment can be formed.
[…] every thing was now in a fairer train for Miss Crawford’s marrying Edmund than it had ever been before.
Connected sequence of people or things. A set of interconnected mechanical parts which operate each other in sequence.
Connected sequence of people or things. A series of electrical pulses.
Connected sequence of people or things. A series of specified vehicles (originally tramcars in a mine as usual, later especially railway carriages) coupled together.
- Examples
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I go to work by train.
Connected sequence of people or things. A mechanical (originally steam-powered, now typically diesel or electrical) vehicle carrying a large number of passengers and freight along a designated track or path; a line of connected wagons considered overall as a mode of transport; (as uncountable noun) rail or road travel.
- Examples
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on a train
The train for Edinburgh will leave in 5 minutes.
More examples (4)
The train arrived at the station.
We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine.[…]As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.
This winter we thought we'd go to Venice by train, for the adventure.
A maglev train is akin to a surfboard riding a magnetic wave, says John Harding, formerly chief maglev scientist at America’s Federal Railroad Administration. […] A “moving platform” scheme proposed by Priestmangoode is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
Connected sequence of people or things. A service on a railway line.
Usage- Informal
Connected sequence of people or things. A long, heavy sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, etc.
Connected sequence of people or things. A software release schedule.
- Examples
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What steps do development engineers follow when adding new feature code? How do they support different software versions or release trains?
Connected sequence of people or things. An act wherein series of men line up and then penetrate a person, especially as a form of gang rape.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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“You want us to run a train on you?”
Connected sequence of people or things. A specified topic, behavior, interest or inclination.
Usage- Colloquial
- Examples
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She doesn't come around any more, cuz she had a kid. She's on the family train now.
Verb
To practice an ability.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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She trained seven hours a day to prepare for the Olympics.
To teach and form (someone) by practice; to educate (someone).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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You can't train a pig to write poetry.
More examples (1)
The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west, employed by a military trained by westerners.
To teach and form (someone) by practice; to educate (someone). To feed data into an algorithm, usually based on a neural network, to create a machine learning model that can perform some task.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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At least 10 lawsuits have been filed this year against A.I. companies, accusing them of training their systems on artists’ creative work without consent.
To improve one's fitness.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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I trained with weights all winter.
To proceed in sequence.
Usage- Intransitive
To move (a gun) laterally so that it points in a different direction.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The assassin had trained his gun on the minister.
To encourage (a plant or branch) to grow in a particular direction or shape, usually by pruning and bending.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The vine had been trained over the pergola.
He trains the young branches to the right hand or to the left.
To transport (something) by train.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Colson was to truck the 'plane to Alice Springs, where it would be trained to Adelaide for repairs.
To travel by train.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
As I trained westward across Europe, I read newspaper articles from the Sixties describing placards on the pub’s walls that explained to patrons how to order lager, brandy, and gin in Esperanto.
To trace (a lode or any mineral appearance) to its head.
Usage- Transitive
To create a trainer (cheat patch) for; to apply cheats to (a game).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
I got a twix on the 128 version being fixed and trained by Mad Max at M2K BBS 208-587-7636 in Mountain Home Idaho. He fixes many games and puts them on his board. One of my sources for games and utils.
In the mid-1980s, demoparties were also copyparties, where the first so called hot releases of cracked and trained games changed hands. However, illegal software copying later disappeared […]
To draw (something) along; to trail, to drag (something).
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
- Examples
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[I]t pleaſed the grekes at that tyme to ſe yͤ body of Hector ſo trayned by Achilles⸝ bycauſe he was wont to be ſo redoubtab[l]e to them⸝ […]
In hollow cube / Training his devilish enginery.
To trail down or along the ground.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
- of clothing
Noun
Treachery; deceit.
Usage- Obsolete
- Uncountable
- Examples
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In the meane time, through that false Ladies traine / He was surprisd, and buried under beare, / Ne ever to his worke returnd againe [...].
A trick or stratagem.
Usage- Countable
- Obsolete
A trap for animals, a snare; (figuratively) a trap in general.
Usage- Countable
- Obsolete
A lure; a decoy.
Usage- Countable
- Obsolete
A live bird, handicapped or disabled in some way, provided for a young hawk to kill as training or enticement.
Usage- Countable
- Obsolete
A clue or trace.
Usage- Countable
- Obsolete
Verb
To draw by persuasion, artifice, or the like; to attract by stratagem; to entice; to allure.
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
- Examples
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If but a dozen French / Were there in arms, they would be as a call / To train ten thousand English to their side.
O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note.
More examples (2)
O doe not goe, this feaſt (I'le gage my life) / Is but a plot to trayne you to your ruine, / Be rul'd, you ſha'not goe.
Thou hast been trained from thy post by some deep guile — some well-devised stratagem – the cry of some distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or the laughful look of some merry one has taken thine eye.
To be on intimate terms with.
Usage- Colloquial
- Obsolete
Noun
train oil, whale oil
Usage- Obsolete
- Uncountable
Noun
public transport provided by a line of railway cars coupled together and drawn by a locomotive
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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express trains don't stop at Princeton Junction
a sequentially ordered set of things or events or ideas in which each successive member is related to the preceding
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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a string of islands
train of mourners
More examples (1)
a train of thought
a procession (of wagons or mules or camels) traveling together in single file
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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we were part of a caravan of almost a thousand camels
they joined the wagon train for safety
a series of consequences wrought by an event
- Broader terms
- Examples
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it led to a train of disasters
piece of cloth forming the long back section of a gown that is drawn along the floor
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the bride's train was carried by her two young nephews
wheelwork consisting of a connected set of rotating gears by which force is transmitted or motion or torque is changed
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the fool got his tie caught in the geartrain
Verb
create by training and teaching
- Examples
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The old master is training world-class violinists
we develop the leaders for the future
undergo training or instruction in preparation for a particular role, function, or profession
- Synonyms
- Examples
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She is training to be a teacher
He trained as a legal aid
develop (a child's or animal's) behavior by instruction and practice; especially to teach self-control
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Parents must discipline their children
Is this dog trained?
educate for a future role or function
- Broader terms
- Examples
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He is grooming his son to become his successor
The prince was prepared to become King one day
More examples (1)
They trained him to be a warrior
teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment
- Examples
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Cultivate your musical taste
Train your tastebuds
More examples (1)
She is well schooled in poetry
point or cause to go (blows, weapons, or objects such as photographic equipment) towards
- Broader terms
- Examples
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Please don't aim at your little brother!
He trained his gun on the burglar
More examples (2)
Don't train your camera on the women
Take a swipe at one's opponent
teach and supervise (someone); act as a trainer or coach (to), as in sports
- Synonyms
- Examples
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He is training our Olympic team
She is coaching the crew
exercise in order to prepare for an event or competition
- Examples
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She is training for the Olympics
cause to grow in a certain way by tying and pruning it
- Examples
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train the vine
travel by rail or train
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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They railed from Rome to Venice
She trained to Hamburg
drag loosely along a surface; allow to sweep the ground
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The toddler was trailing his pants
She trained her long scarf behind her