rail

Etymology 1

From Middle English rail, rayl, *reȝel, *reȝol (found in reȝolsticke (“a ruler”)), partly from Old English regol (“a ruler, straight bar”) and partly from Old French reille; both from Latin regula (“rule, bar”), from regō (“to rule, to guide, to govern”); see regular.

noun

1. A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing.
   Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. The metal bar forming part of the track for a railroad.
   A "moving platform" scheme[…]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. 2013-06-01, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly)
3. A railroad; a railway, as a means of transportation.
   We travelled to the seaside by rail.
   a small Scottish village not accessible by rail
   rail transport
4. (electronics) A conductor maintained at a fixed electrical potential relative to ground, to which other circuit components are connected.
   ISA devices draw power from the +5 V, −5 V, +12 V, and −12 V rails of the power supply unit.
   There has been another, fairly gradual change in the ATX specification: Initially a lot of power was supplied on the 5V and 3.3V rails, but over time more and more power shifted to 12V because it's more efficient. Modern (ATX12V 2.x) PSUs supply most of their power on the 12V rail and not a lot on the 5V rail, which means a modern PSU may not be able to supply an old board, unless it's a really beefy PSU—because providing 500W on the 12V rail is of very little use to an AT or early ATX system. 5 December 2019, Michal Necasek, “Power Trouble”, in OS/2 Museum, archived from the original on 2022-09-25
5. A horizontal piece of wood that serves to separate sections of a door or window.
6. (surfing) One of the lengthwise edges of a surfboard.
   Rails alone can only ever have a marginal effect on a board's general turning ability. c. 2000, Nick Carroll, surfline.com http://www.surfline.com/community/whoknows/10_21_rails.cfm
7. (Internet) A vertical section on one side of a web page.
   We're experimenting with ads in the right-hand rail.
8. (drugs) A large line (portion or serving of a powdery illegal drug).
   Do a couple rails and chase your own tail 2013, Jason Isbell, Super 8

verb

1. (intransitive) To travel by railway.
   Mottram of the Indian Survey had ridden thirty and railed one hundred miles from his lonely post in the desert […] 1890, Rudyard Kipling, At the End of the Passage
2. (transitive, rail transport, of rolling stock) To place on a track.
3. (transitive) To enclose with rails or a railing.
   It ought to be fenced in and railed.
4. (transitive) To range in a line.
5. (transitive, vulgar, slang) To sexually penetrate in a rough manner.

Etymology 2

From French râle, rale, from Middle French raalle, from Old French rasle. Compare Medieval Latin rallus. Named from its harsh cry, Vulgar Latin *rasculum, from Latin rādere (“to scrape”).

noun

1. Any of several birds in the family Rallidae.

Etymology 3

From Middle French railler.

verb

1. To complain violently (against, about).
   He always said: “Let them rail on; he laughs best who laughs last.” 1882, Mark Twain, “The Stolen White Elephant”
   The Major’s fury clothed and reclothed itself in words as frantically as a woman up in town for one day’s shopping tries on a succession of garments. He reviled and railed at fate and the general scheme of things, he pitied himself with a strong, deep pity too poignant for tears, he condemned every one with whom he had ever come in contact to endless and abnormal punishments. 1910, "Saki", H. H. Munro, The Bag,https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1870/1870-h/1870-h.htm#page75
   The Queen may be celebrating her jubilee but the Queen's English Society, which has railed against the misuse and deterioration of the English language, is to fold. 2012/6/4, Lewis Smith, “Queen’s English Society says enuf is enough, innit?: Society formed 40 years ago to protect language against poor spelling and grammar closes because too few people care”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2016-03-10

Etymology 4

From Middle English rail, reil, from Old English hræġl (“garment, dress, robe”). Cognate with Old Frisian hreil, reil, Old Saxon hregil, Old High German hregil (“clothing, garment, dress”).

noun

1. (obsolete) An item of clothing; a cloak or other garment; a dress.
2. (obsolete) Specifically, a woman's headscarf or neckerchief.
   A course hempen raile about her shoulders. 1592, Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless

Etymology 5

Probably from Anglo-Norman raier, Middle French raier.

verb

1. (obsolete, of a liquid) To gush; to flow.