Word.ws English Dictionary

rode on a rail

rode on a rail is the simple past of ride on a rail.

Meaning of ride on a rail

Verb

ride on a rail (third-person singular simple present rides on a rail, present participle riding on a rail, simple past rode on a rail, past participle ridden on a rail)

  1. (historical, idiomatic) To be subjected to a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers. The victim was then paraded around town or taken to the city limits and dumped by the roadside.
    • ...they'd be along pretty soon and give me 'bout half an hour's start, and then run me down if they could; and if they got me they'd tar and feather me and ride me on a rail, sure. I didn't wait for no breakfast--I warn't hungry.1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XIX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC

Questions about rode on a rail

What is rode on a rail the simple past of?
Rode on a rail is the simple past of ride on a rail.

Words near rode on a rail in the dictionary

  1. rode herd on
  2. rode high
  3. rode off
  4. rode off into the sunset
  5. rode on
  6. rode on a rail
  7. rode on the back of
  8. rode one's bumper
  9. rode one's luck
  10. rode or died
  11. rode out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rode on a rail (page history and authors); ride on a rail (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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