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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



546 words match “RAIL”

SIDING n.
A side track, as a railroad; a turnout.
SIGNALMAN n.
is to manage or display signals; especially, one employed in setting the signals by which railroad trains are run or warned.
SILLY a.
Weak; helpless; frail. [Obs.] After long storms . . . With which my silly bark was tossed sore. Spenser. The silly buckets on the deck. Coleridge.
SISSOO n.
ct and durable timber obtained from it. It is used in shipbuilding and for gun carriages, railway ties, etc.
SKID n.
One of a pair of horizontal rails or timbers for supporting anything, as a boat, a barrel, etc.
SKILTY n.
The water rail. [Prov. Eng.]
SKITTY n.
A rail; as, the water rail (called also skitty cock, and skitty coot); the spotted crake (Porzana maruetta), and the moor hen. [Prov. Eng.]
SLAP adv.
With a sudden and violent blow; hence, quickly; instantly; directly. [Colloq.] "The railroad cars drive slap into the city." Thackeray.
SLEEPER n.
ground, for the support of some superstructure, to steady framework, to keep in place the rails of a railway, etc.; a stringpiece.
SLEEPING a.
from Sleep. Sleeping car, a railway car or carrriage, arranged with apartments and berths for sleeping. -- Sleeping partner (Com.), a dormant partner. See under Dormant. -- Sleeping table (Mining), a stationary inclined platform on which pulverized ore is washed; a kind of buddle.
SLIDE n.
team chest. See under Steam. -- Slide lathe, an engine lathe. See under Lathe. -- Slide rail, a transfer table. See under Transfer. -- Slide rest (Turning lathes), a contrivance for holding, moving, and guiding, the cutting tool, made to slide on ways or guides by screws or otherwise, and having compound motion. --…
SLIDOMETER n.
An instrument for indicating and recording shocks to railway cars occasioned by sudden stopping.
SLIMSY a.
Flimsy; frail. [Colloq. U.S.]
SMILAX n.
A delicate trailing plant (Myrsiphyllum asparagoides) much used for decoration. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope.
SMOKING a.
or Indian-bean tree, often smoked by boys as a substitute for cigars. -- Smoking car, a railway car carriage reserved for the use of passengers who smoke tobacco.
SNAKEHEAD n.
A loose, bent-up end of one of the strap rails, or flat rails, formerly used on American railroads. It was sometimes so bent by the passage of a train as to slip over a wheel and pierce the bottom of a car.
SNOWPLOW; SNOWPLOUGH n.
ment operating like a plow, but on a larger scale, for clearing away the snow from roads, railways, etc.
SNOWSHED n.
A shelter to protect from snow, esp. a long roof over an exposed part of a railroad.
SORA n.
A North American rail (Porzana Carolina) common in the Eastern United States. Its back is golden brown, varied with black and white, the front of the head and throat black, the breast and sides of the head and neck slate-colored. Called also American rail, Carolina rail, Carolina crake, common rail, sora rail, soree, m…
SPLICE v.
To unite, as spars, timbers, rails, etc., by lapping the two ends together, or by applying a piece which laps upon the two ends, and then binding, or in any way making fast.
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