Word.ws English Dictionary

cantrail

/kæntˈɹeɪl/

cantrail noun: a length of metal (earlier timber) supporting the outer edge of the roof of a railway carriage; also found on locomotives, buses and coaches.

cantrail: a length of metal (earlier timber) supporting the outer edge of the roof of a railway carriage;...
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Noun

cantrail (plural cantrails)

  1. (UK) A length of metal (earlier timber) supporting the outer edge of the roof of a railway carriage; also found on locomotives, buses and coaches.
    • As was briefly reported last month, the S.R. is experimenting with the Continental method of making the class of train accommodation more conspicuous by painting a coloured strip below the cantrail of the coaches.1960 March, “Talking of Trains: "Rainbow" trains on the S.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 135

Forms of cantrail

pluralcantrails
alternative formcant rail

Origin of cantrail

From cant + rail.

Questions about cantrail

What does cantrail mean?
Cantrail means a length of metal (earlier timber) supporting the outer edge of the roof of a railway carriage; also found on locomotives, buses and coaches.
What part of speech is cantrail?
Cantrail is a noun.
How do you pronounce cantrail?
Cantrail is pronounced /kæntˈɹeɪl/.
What is the plural of cantrail?
The plural of cantrail is cantrails.

Words near cantrail in the dictionary

  1. cantorships
  2. cantos
  3. Cantoses
  4. cantour
  5. cantours
  6. cantrail
  7. cantrails
  8. cantraip
  9. cantraips
  10. Cantrall
  11. Cantralls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cantrail (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cantrail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cantrail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.