Word.ws English Dictionary

rail spike

rail spike noun: a type of large nail with an offset head used to fasten a rail or base plate to a wooden railroad tie/sleeper.

rail spike: a type of large nail with an offset head used to fasten a rail or base plate to a wooden railroad...
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Noun

rail spike (plural rail spikes)

  1. A type of large nail with an offset head used to fasten a rail or base plate to a wooden railroad tie/sleeper.
    • The company use on the outside of both rails, on all sharp curves, a cast iron brace nearly the same height as the rail, and secured to tie with three rail spikes.1887, Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners of the State of New York, page 147
    Synonyms:
    railroad spike

Synonyms of rail spike

Forms of rail spike

pluralrail spikes

Words that rhyme with rail spike

33 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rail spike

What does rail spike mean?
Rail spike means a type of large nail with an offset head used to fasten a rail or base plate to a wooden railroad tie/sleeper.
What part of speech is rail spike?
Rail spike is a noun.
What is the plural of rail spike?
The plural of rail spike is rail spikes.

Words near rail spike in the dictionary

  1. rail rokos
  2. rail saver
  3. rail savers
  4. rail shooter
  5. rail shooters
  6. rail spike
  7. rail spikes
  8. rail terminal
  9. rail terminals
  10. rail tour
  11. rail tours

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rail spike (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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