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An inclined railway running into the water with a cradelike car on which a vessel may be drawn out on land, as for repairs.

See under T.

rn, which is flat like a table on the top, and sometimes ornamented with carved work; the rail around a ship's stern. [Written also tafferel.]

The third rail used in the third-rail system.

A system in which a third rail is used for carrying the current for operating the motors, the rail being insulated from the ground and the current being taken off by means of contact brushes or other devices.

Formerly, a member of an independent body of marksmen in the French army. They were used sometimes in front of the army to annoy the enemy, sometimes in the rear to check his pursuit. The term is now applied to all troops acting as skirmishers.

To draw or drag, as along the ground. And hung his head, and trailed his legs along. Dryden. They shall not trail me through their streets Like a wild beast. Milton. Long behind he trails his pompous robe. Pope.

Same as Guide rope, above.

One who, or that which, trails.

a. & vb. n. from Trail. Trailing arbutus. (Bot.) See under Arbutus. -- Trailing spring, a spring fixed in the axle box of the trailing wheels of a locomotive engine, and so placed as to assist in deadening any shock which may occur. Weale. -- Trailing wheel, a hind wheel of a locomotive when it is not a driving wheel…

A following edge. See Advancing edge, above.

An overhead rail forming a track on which a trolley runs to convey a load, as in a shop.

Any one of numerous species of rails of the genus Rallus, as the common European species (Rallus aquaticus). See Illust. of Rail.

On board; into or within a ship or boat; hence, into or within a railway car.

"Original sin;" human frailty. And whipped the offending Adam out of him. Shak. Adam's ale, water. [Coll.] -- Adam's apple.

A railway brake operated by condensed air. Knight.

The ground-plan of a railway or other road, in distinction from the grades or profile.

the advancing edge (of an aërocurve) and the line of motion; -- contrasted with angle of trail, which is the angle between the tangent to the following edge and the line of motion.

Divination by the entrails of human being.

the Heath family. It has a berry externally resembling the strawberry; the arbute tree. Trailing arbutus (Bot.), a creeping or trailing plant of the Heath family (Epigæa repens), having white or usually rose- colored flowers with a delicate fragrance, growing in small axillary clusters, and appearing early in the spri…