Definition of "railroad" []

• A road composed of parallel steel rails supported by ties and providing a track for locomotive-drawn trains or other wheeled vehicles. (noun)
• A system of railroad track, together with the land, stations, rolling stock, and other related property under one management. (noun)
• To transport by railroad. (verb-transitive)
• To supply (an area) with railroads. (verb-transitive)
• Informal To rush or push (something) through quickly in order to prevent careful consideration and possible criticism or obstruction: railroad a special-interest bill through Congress. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This system furnishes us the idea of a railroad made up of successive breaks; _a negative railroad_."
• "With this system we arrive at a railroad of successive stoppages, to a _negative railroad_."
• "I had great difficulty in extorting any information from that three-fourths wild man, who gazed at me suspiciously, in ambush behind his goat-skin _pelone_; he did tell me, however, unintentionally, what the Corsicans understand by the term railroad, and why they assume this mysterious manner when they mention it."