Word.ws English Dictionary

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)

  1. (transitive) To cause to come off the tracks.
    • The train was destroyed when it was derailed by the collision.
  2. (intransitive) 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
  3. (figuratively, intransitive) To deviate from the previous course or direction.
    • The conversation derailed once James brought up politics.
  4. (figuratively, transitive) To cause to deviate from a set course or direction.
    • The protesting students derailed the professor's lecture.

See all 6 meanings of derail

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

  1. deraigned
  2. deraigning
  3. deraigns
  4. derail
  5. derailable
  6. derailed
  7. derailer
  8. derailers
  9. derailing
  10. derailings
  11. derailleur

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.

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