Word.ws English Dictionary

like a train

like a train prepositional phrase: with unstoppable momentum.

like a train: with unstoppable momentum
Image: Niranjan Arminius, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Prepositional phrase

  1. (UK, simile) With unstoppable momentum.
    • I could not get a shot in. They turned in my direction and came like a train. I stopped the first and the others spilled round him at a frightful speed. I was in the eddy of the first beast, as it were. I got in another shot at an angle behind the ear and down he went.1949, Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell, Karamojo safari, page 85
    • "That tide's coming in like a train, and if the Raider breaks up, the currents will drag them under!" Her voice was desperate. "I don't see 'ow anyone can get to them!" It was true.1994, Sheila Garrigue, The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito, →ISBN, page 17

Questions about like a train

What does like a train mean?
Like a train means with unstoppable momentum.
What part of speech is like a train?
Like a train is a prepositional phrase.

Words near like a train in the dictionary

  1. like a scalded dog
  2. like a shot
  3. like a spare prick at a wedding
  4. like a stuck pig
  5. like a ton of bricks
  6. like a train
  7. like a wet weekend
  8. like a whitehead
  9. like a wolf on the fold
  10. like all possessed
  11. like an explosion in a paint factory

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: like a train (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-like a train.ogg.

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