Part 21

2 Pet. ii. 11.

Rail"ing, n. 1. A barrier made of a rail or of rails.

2. Rails in general; also, material for making rails.

Rail"ing*ly, adv. With scoffing or insulting language.

Rail"ler*y (rl"lr* or rl"-; 277), n. [F. raillerie, fr. railler. See Rail to scoff.] Pleasantry or slight satire; banter; jesting language; satirical merriment.

Let raillery be without malice or heat.

B. Jonson.

Studies employed on low objects; the very naming of them is sufficient to turn them into raillery.

Addison.

||Rail`leur" (r`lyr" or r`yr"), n. [F.] A banterer; a jester; a mocker. ||[R.] Wycherley.

{ Rail"road` (rl"rd`), Rail"way` (- w`), } n. 1. 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.

The modern railroad is a development and adaptation of the older tramway.

2. 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.

Railway is the commoner word in England; railroad the commoner word in the United States.

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 or railway. (a) A railroad or railway running through a tunnel, as beneath the streets of a city. (b) Formerly, a system of coöperation among certain active antislavery people in the United States, by which fugitive slaves were secretly helped to reach Canada. [In the latter sense railroad, and not railway, was used.] "Their house was a principal entrepôt of the underground railroad." W. D. Howells.

Rail"road`ing, n. The construction of a railroad; the business of managing or operating a railroad. [Colloq. U. S.]

Rai"ment (r"ment), n. [Abbrev. fr. arraiment. See Array.] 1. Clothing in general; vesture; garments; -- usually singular in form, with a collective sense.

Living, both food and raiment she supplies.

Dryden.

2. An article of dress. [R. or Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

Rain (rn), n. & v. Reign. [Obs.] Spenser.

Rain (rn), n. [OE. rein, AS. regen; akin to OFries. rein, D. & G. regen, OS. & OHG. regan, Icel., Dan., & Sw. regn, Goth. rign, and prob. to L. rigare to water, to wet; cf. Gr. bre`chein to wet, to rain.] Water falling in drops from the clouds; the descent of water from the clouds in drops.

Rain is water by the heat of the sun divided into very small parts ascending in the air, till, encountering the cold, it be condensed into clouds, and descends in drops.

Ray.

Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.

Milton.

Rain is distinguished from mist by the size of the drops, which are distinctly visible. When water falls in very small drops or particles, it is called mist; and fog is composed of particles so fine as to be not only individually indistinguishable, but to float or be suspended in the air. See Fog, and Mist.