Word.ws English Dictionary

railless

railless adjective: without rail tracks.

Adjective

railless (not comparable)

  1. Without rail tracks.
    • railless street cars
    • The gun-metal hangers and other fittings are interchangeable with those of the tramway system; and should tramways later be substituted for the railless system, a change over can be made with comparatively small expense. The railless vehicles have been supplied by the Railless Electric Traction...1911 July 6, “Railless traction at Leeds and Bradford”, in The Tramway and Railway World: A Review of Current Progress in Electric and Other Traction, volume 30, number July 6, page 11
    Synonyms:
    trackless
  2. Without handrails.
    • railless stairways
    • SCENE: Big Min's honky-tonk at Shawnee Mining Camp. There is a long, low-ceiled room with a short bar and a piano at one end, a railless stairway against one wall, and a cleared space in the middle of the floor, for dancing. The other end is occupied by a round table for cards, and an old pool...1939, Frank B. Wells, “John Henry: Steel Driving Man”, in Federal Theatre Project, volume 1, number 6, Play Bureau, Federal Theatre Project, U.S. Works Progress Administration

Examples of railless in a sentence

  • The railless vehicles have been supplied by the Railless Electric Traction Company, of London, as contractors, to the joint specification of the general managers of the Leeds and Bradford Tramways.1911 July 6, “Railless traction at Leeds and Bradford”, in The Tramway and Railway World: A Review of Current Progress in Electric and...
  • There is a long, low-ceiled room with a short bar and a piano at one end, a railless stairway against one wall, and a cleared space in the middle of the floor, for dancing.1939, Frank B. Wells, “John Henry: Steel Driving Man”, in Federal Theatre Project, volume 1, number 6, Play Bureau, Federal Theatre...
  • They all then trooped up a railless stairway carved out of the outer wall of the dam.2011, Kenzaburo Oe, Somersault, Grove/Atlantic, →ISBN, page 280:

Synonyms of railless

Origin of railless

From rail + -less.

Questions about railless

What does railless mean?
Railless means without rail tracks.
How do you use railless in a sentence?
The railless vehicles have been supplied by the Railless Electric Traction Company, of London, as contractors, to the joint specification of the general managers of the Leeds and Bradford Tramways.
What part of speech is railless?
Railless is an adjective.

Words near railless in the dictionary

  1. railings
  2. railjoint
  3. railjoints
  4. railleries
  5. raillery
  6. railless
  7. railleur
  8. railleurs
  9. raillied
  10. raillies
  11. raillike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: railless (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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