Word.ws English Dictionary

railbird

railbird noun: a rail or similar bird.

Noun

railbird (plural railbirds)

  1. A rail or similar bird
  2. (US, slang) A gambler; originally specifically a horseracing enthusiast
    • He earned it one night at Chelsea Billiards in New York, where he knocked off Eddie Hubler, a.k.a. Kid Vicious, winning $4,200 from railbirds who were certain that the fat kid from Jersey had no game.2007 October 6, Charles Mcgrath, “The Happy Hustler”, in New York Times

Forms of railbird

pluralrailbirds

Origin of railbird

From rail + bird.

Questions about railbird

What does railbird mean?
Railbird means a rail or similar bird.
What part of speech is railbird?
Railbird is a noun.
What is the plural of railbird?
The plural of railbird is railbirds.

Words near railbird in the dictionary

  1. railbanks
  2. railbed
  3. railbeds
  4. railbike
  5. railbikes
  6. railbird
  7. railbirds
  8. railborne
  9. railbound
  10. railbridge
  11. railbridges

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: railbird (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-railbird.ogg.

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