train

Etymology 1

From Middle English trayne (“train”), from Old French train (“a delay, a drawing out”), from traïner (“to pull out, to draw”), from Vulgar Latin *traginō, from *tragō, from Latin trahō (“to pull, to draw”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tregʰ- (“to pull, draw, drag”). The verb was derived from the noun in Middle English.

noun

1. Elongated or trailing portion.
   1. The elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground.
      Unfortunately, the leading bridesmaid stepped on the bride's train as they were walking down the aisle.
      He was generally seen trooping like a colt at his mother's heels, equipped in a pair of his father's cast-off galligaskins, which he had much ado to hold up with one hand, as a lady does her train in bad weather. 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rip Van Winkle
      Lace sleeves, a demure neckline, a full skirt and a relatively modest train. 20 Apr 2011, Imogen Fox, The Guardian
   2. A trail or line of something, especially gunpowder.
      [E]mancipation is put into such a train that in a few years there will be no slaves Northward of Maryland. 1785, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Richard Price
      A party was sent to search, and there they found all the powder ready prepared, and, moreover, a man with a lantern, one Guy Fawkes, who had undertaken to be the one to set fire to the train of gunpowder, hoping to escape before the explosion. 1873, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Aunt Charlotte's Stories of English History for the little ones
   3. The tail of a bird.
      The burning evening sun lighted with mellow gold the coats of the fierce little tiger-kittens — orange silk with stripes of black velvet — the broken amethysts and ruined emeralds of the poor bird's train cruelly scattered over the trampled grass 1894, Sir Edwin Arnold, Wandering Words, page 260
      Fawn and pearl of the lyre-bird's train, / Sheen of the bronze-wing, blue of the crane; / Cream of the plover, grey of the dove; / These are the hues of the land I love! 1917, William Henry Fitchett, Australia in the making, page xii
      Before the Spanish Conquest, the long, slender, green plumes of the male bird's train adorned the headgear of Aztec and Mayan kings and chieftains, as one may clearly see in modern restorations of ancient scenes. 1945, Nature Magazine, page 299
   4. (obsolete) The tail of an animal in general.
   5. (poetic) The elongated body or form of something narrow and winding, such as the course of a river or the body of a snake.
   6. (astronomy) A transient trail of glowing ions behind a large meteor as it falls through the atmosphere or accompanying a comet as it nears the sun; tail.
      Finally, all men saw that astronomical knowledge lied not, and they awaited the comet. Its approach was not, at first, seemingly rapid; nor was its appearance of very unusual character. It was of a dull red, and had little perceptible train. 1839, Edgar Allan Poe, The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
      It sometimes happens that the train is directed towards the sun, or makes a certain angle with the line joining the head and the sun; it was then called by the ancient astronomers the beard of the comet. 1877, Amédée Guillemin, James Glaisher, The World of Comets, page 200
      ...the comet expands, its vapours are developed and escape in jets towards the radiant star; then we see them driven back on each side of the head and the caudal train commencing. 2014, Camille Flammarion, Popular Astronomy, page 515
   7. (now rare) An animal's trail or track.
   8. (obsolete, hunting) Something dragged or laid along the ground to form a trail of scent or food along which to lure an animal.
   9. (obsolete) Gait or manner of running of a horse.
2. Connected sequence of people or things.
   1. A group of people following an important figure such as a king or noble; a retinue, a group of retainers.
      The imperial train arrived on November 22 at Te-chou, a city in western Shantung along the border of Chihli. 1979, Silas H. L. Wu, Passage to Power: Kʻang-hsi and His Heir Apparent, 1661-1722, Harvard University Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 78
      Grace was glad the citizenry did not know Katherine Gordon was in the king’s train, but she was beginning to understand Henry’s motive for including the pretender’s wife. 2009, Anne Easter Smith, The King's Grace
   2. A group of animals, vehicles, or people that follow one another in a line, such as a wagon train; a caravan or procession.
      Our party formed a train at the funeral parlor before departing for the burial.
   3. (figurative, poetic) A group or class of people.
   4. (military) The men and vehicles following an army, which carry artillery and other equipment for battle or siege.
   5. A sequence of events or ideas which are interconnected; a course or procedure of something.
      A man may be absorbed in the deepest thought, and his brow will remain smooth until he encounters some obstacle in his train of reasoning, or is interrupted by some disturbance, and then a frown passes like a shadow over his brow. 1872, Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
      Failure to acknowledge an A.T.C. warning or excessive speed starts the same train of events until correction is made. 1960 November, P. Ransome=Wallis, “Modern motive power of the German Federal Railway: Part Three”, in Trains Illustrated, page 679
      "Where was I?" he asked several times during the lunch, losing his train of thought. 18 Jun 2012, Rory Carroll, The Guardian
   6. A set of things, events, or circumstances that follow after or as a consequence; aftermath, wake.
      Thus the development of reason is accompanied by no inner blight or withering. It does not bring in its train loss of faith or weakening of sympathies. 1907, Margaret McMillan, Labour and Childhood, page 120
   7. (obsolete) State of progress, status, situation (in phrases introduced by in a + adjective); also proper order or situation (introduced by in or in a alone).
      in a fair / better / worse train
      I took care that my absence should neither be lamented by the poor nor the rich. I put every thing in a fair train of going on smoothly, and actually set out, with my steward, for my estate in Wales at dawning of the day. 1779, Samuel Jackson Pratt, chapter 7, in Shenstone-Green: or, the New Paradise Lost, volume 1, London: R. Baldwin, page 46
      1787, George Washington, letter to Alexander Hamilton dated 10 July, 1787, in The Writings of George Washington, Boston: American Stationers’ Company, 1837, Volume 9, p. 260, When I refer you to the state of the counsels, which prevailed at the period you left this city, and add that they are now if possible in a worse train than ever, you will find but little ground on which the hope of a good establishment can be formed.
   8. A set of interconnected mechanical parts which operate each other in sequence.
   9. A series of electrical pulses.
   10. A series of specified vehicles (originally tramcars in a mine as usual, later especially railway carriages) coupled together.
   11. A mechanical (traditionally steam-powered, now typically diesel or electrical) vehicle carrying a large number of passengers and freight along a designated track or path; a line of connected cars or carriages considered overall as a mode of transport; (as uncountable noun) rail or road travel.
       The train will pull in at midday.
       This winter we thought we'd go to Venice by train, for the adventure. 24 Jan 2009, Hanif Kureishi, The Guardian
       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)
   12. A long, heavy sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, etc.
   13. (computing) A software release schedule.
       What steps do development engineers follow when adding new feature code? How do they support different software versions or release trains? 2008, Michael Bushong, Cathy Gadecki, Aviva Garrett, JUNOS For Dummies, page 16
   14. (sex, slang) An act wherein series of men line up and then penetrate a person, especially as a form of gang rape.
       You want us to run a train on you? 2005, Violet Blue, Best Women's Erotica 2006: Volume 2001, link

verb

1. (intransitive) To practice an ability.
   She trained seven hours a day to prepare for the Olympics.
2. (transitive) To teach and form (someone) by practice; to educate (someone).
   You can't train a pig to write poetry.
   The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west, employed by a military trained by westerners. 2013-06-07, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution]”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18
3. (intransitive) To improve one's fitness.
   I trained with weights all winter.
4. (intransitive) To proceed in sequence.
5. (transitive) To move (a gun) laterally so that it points in a different direction.
   The assassin had trained his gun on the minister.
6. (transitive, horticulture) To encourage (a plant or branch) to grow in a particular direction or shape, usually by pruning and bending.
   The vine had been trained over the pergola.
   He trains the young branches to the right hand or to the left. 1805, Francis Jeffrey, The Edinburgh Review
7. (transitive, machine learning) To feed data into an algorithm, usually based on a neural network, to create a machine learning model that can perform some task.
   At least 10 lawsuits have been filed this year against A.I. companies, accusing them of training their systems on artists’ creative work without consent. 2023-07-15, Sheera Frenkel, Stuart A. Thompson, “‘Not for Machines to Harvest’: Data Revolts Break Out Against A.I.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
8. (transitive, mining) To trace (a lode or any mineral appearance) to its head.
9. (transitive, video games) To create a trainer for; to apply cheats to (a game).
   I got a twix on the 128 version being fixed and trained by Mad Max at M2K BBS 208-587-7636 in Mountain Home Idaho. He fixes many games and puts them on his board. One of my sources for games and utils. 2000, Sensei David O.E. Mohr - Lord Ronin from Q-Link, “WTB:"The Last V-8" C128 game -name correction”, in comp.sys.cbm (Usenet)
10. (transitive, obsolete) To draw (something) along; to trail, to drag (something).
11. (intransitive, obsolete, of clothing) To trail down or along the ground.
12. (transitive, obsolete) To draw by persuasion, artifice, or the like; to attract by stratagem; to entice; to allure.

Etymology 2

From Middle English trayne (“treachery”), from Anglo-Norman traine, Middle French traïne, from traïr (“to betray”).

noun

1. (uncountable, obsolete) Treachery; deceit.
2. (countable, obsolete) A trick or stratagem.
3. (countable, obsolete) A trap for animals, a snare; (figurative) a trap in general.
4. (countable, obsolete) A lure; a decoy.
5. (countable, obsolete, falconry) A live bird, handicapped or disabled in some way, provided for a young hawk to kill as training or enticement.

Etymology 3

table From Dutch traan (“tear, drop”), from Middle Dutch trâen, from Old Dutch trān, from Proto-Germanic *trahnuz. Compare German Träne (“tear”), Tran (“train oil”).

noun

1. (obsolete) train oil, whale oil.