Word.ws English Dictionary

loose-coupled

loose-coupled adjective: of older railway wagons, having a chain coupling between them, without the buffers on each wagon touching those of the next wagon when the train was in motion.

Adjective

loose-coupled (not comparable)

  1. (UK, historical) Of older railway wagons, having a chain coupling between them, without the buffers on each wagon touching those of the next wagon when the train was in motion.
    • It consists exclusively of loose-coupled open mineral wagons and a guard's brake van; owing to the isolation of the branch the last-named is equipped with a first aid box and a jack, to enable any emergency to be dealt with rapidly.1940 December, Charles E. Lee, “The Wenford Mineral Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 643
    • The line here rises in the up direction, for the most part on a 1 in 132 gradient, and three spring-operated catch points—Basildon West, Basildon and Vange—are provided at intervals on the up line between the two stations, to derail any runaway wagons of a loose-coupled freight train.1961 December, “Talking of Trains: Derailment near Laindon”, in Trains Illustrated, page 717

Questions about loose-coupled

What does loose-coupled mean?
Loose-coupled means of older railway wagons, having a chain coupling between them, without the buffers on each wagon touching those of the next wagon when the train was in motion.
What part of speech is loose-coupled?
Loose-coupled is an adjective.

Words near loose-coupled in the dictionary

  1. loose up
  2. loose woman
  3. loose women
  4. loose-box
  5. loose-boxes
  6. loose-coupled
  7. loose-eyed
  8. loose-fitting
  9. loose-handed
  10. loose-handedly
  11. loose-handedness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loose-coupled (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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