derailed
derailed is the simple past and past participle of derail.
Meaning of derail
Verb
derail (third-person singular simple present derails, present participle derailing, simple past and past participle derailed)
- To cause to come off the tracks.
- The train was destroyed when it was derailed by the collision.
- To come off the tracks.
- Fortunately, the CrossCountry train did not derail when it struck the mud. It could easily have been much worse.2020 September 9, Paul Clifton, “Heavy rainfall causes landslip in Hampshire: At the scene...”, in Rail, page 10
- To deviate from the previous course or direction.
- The conversation derailed once James brought up politics.
- To cause to deviate from a set course or direction.
- The protesting students derailed the professor's lecture.
Words formed from derailed
Questions about derailed
- What is derailed the simple past and past participle of?
- Derailed is the simple past and past participle of derail.
Words near derailed in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: derailed (page history and authors); derail (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “derailed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/derailed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
