Word.ws English Dictionary

train

/ˈtɹeɪn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈtɹæɪ̯n/

train noun: the elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground.

train: the elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar...
Image: Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

train (plural trains)

  1. The elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground.
    • Unfortunately, the leading bridesmaid stepped on the bride's train as they were walking down the aisle.
    • They called each other by their Christian name, were always arm in arm when they walked, pinned up each other's train for the dance, and were not to be divided in the set [...].1803 (date written), [Jane Austen], Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817...
  2. A trail or line of something, especially gunpowder.
    • [E]mancipation is put into such a train that in a few years there will be no slaves Northward of Maryland.1785, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Richard Price
    • A party was sent to search, and there they found all the powder ready prepared, and, moreover, a man with a lantern, one Guy Fawkes, who had undertaken to be the one to set fire to the train of gunpowder, hoping to escape before the explosion.1873, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Aunt Charlotte's Stories of English History for the little ones
  3. The tail of a bird.
    • Let frantike Talbot triumph for a while,
      And like a Peacock ſweepe along his tayle,
      Wee’le pull his Plumes, and take away his Trayne,
      If Dolphin and the reſt will be but rul’d.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • The burning evening sun lighted with mellow gold the coats of the fierce little tiger-kittens — orange silk with stripes of black velvet — the broken amethysts and ruined emeralds of the poor bird's train cruelly scattered over the trampled grass1894, Sir Edwin Arnold, Wandering Words, page 260
  4. (obsolete) The tail of an animal in general.
  5. (poetic) The elongated body or form of something narrow and winding, such as the course of a river or the body of a snake.
  6. A transient trail of glowing ions behind a large meteor as it falls through the atmosphere or accompanying a comet as it nears the sun; tail.
    • Finally, all men saw that astronomical knowledge lied not, and they awaited the comet. Its approach was not, at first, seemingly rapid; nor was its appearance of very unusual character. It was of a dull red, and had little perceptible train.1839, Edgar Allan Poe, The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
    • It sometimes happens that the train is directed towards the sun, or makes a certain angle with the line joining the head and the sun; it was then called by the ancient astronomers the beard of the comet.1877, Amédée Guillemin, James Glaisher, The World of Comets, page 200
  7. (archaic) An animal's trail or track.
  8. (obsolete) Something dragged or laid along the ground to form a trail of scent or food along which to lure an animal.
  9. (obsolete) Gait or manner of running of a horse.
  10. A group of people following an important figure such as a king or noble; a retinue, a group of retainers.
    • Sir, I invite your Highness and your train / To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest /For this one night1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
    • The imperial train arrived on November 22 at Te-chou, a city in western Shantung along the border of Chihli.1979, Silas H. L. Wu, Passage to Power: Kʻang-hsi and His Heir Apparent, 1661-1722, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 78
  11. A group of animals, vehicles, or people that follow one another in a line, such as a wagon train; a caravan or procession.
    • Our party formed a train at the funeral parlor before departing for the burial.
  12. (figuratively, poetic) A group or class of people.
    • Theſe are the cruel pirates of Argier,
      That damned train, the ſcum of Affrica, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
Show 13 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. The men and vehicles following an army, which carry artillery and other equipment for battle or siege.
  2. A sequence of events or ideas which are interconnected; a course or procedure of something.
    • A man may be absorbed in the deepest thought, and his brow will remain smooth until he encounters some obstacle in his train of reasoning, or is interrupted by some disturbance, and then a frown passes like a shadow over his brow.1872, Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
    • Failure to acknowledge an A.T.C. warning or excessive speed starts the same train of events until correction is made.1960 November, P. Ransome=Wallis, “Modern motive power of the German Federal Railway: Part Three”, in Trains Illustrated, page 679
  3. A set of things, events, or circumstances that follow after or as a consequence; aftermath, wake.
    • Thus the development of reason is accompanied by no inner blight or withering. It does not bring in its train loss of faith or weakening of sympathies.1907, Margaret McMillan, Labour and Childhood, page 120
  4. (obsolete) State of progress, status, situation (in phrases introduced by in a + adjective); also proper order or situation (introduced by in or in a alone).
    • in a fair / better / worse train
    • As we had been in a good train for several days past, I thought it not prudent to break with him, for little matters.1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXVI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 139
  5. A set of interconnected mechanical parts which operate each other in sequence.
  6. A series of electrical pulses.
  7. A series of specified vehicles (originally tramcars in a mine as usual, later especially railway carriages) coupled together.
  8. A mechanical (originally steam-powered, now typically diesel or electrical) vehicle carrying a large number of passengers and freight along a designated track or path; a line of connected wagons considered overall as a mode of transport; (as uncountable noun) rail or road travel.
    • on a train
    • The train for Edinburgh will leave in 5 minutes.
  9. (informal) A service on a railway line.
  10. A long, heavy sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, etc.
  11. A software release schedule.
    • What steps do development engineers follow when adding new feature code? How do they support different software versions or release trains?2008, Michael Bushong, Cathy Gadecki, Aviva Garrett, JUNOS For Dummies, page 16
  12. (slang) An act wherein series of men line up and then penetrate a person, especially as a form of gang rape.
    • “You want us to run a train on you?”2005, Violet Blue, Best Women's Erotica 2006: Volume 2001, link
  13. (colloquial, with on the) A specified topic, behavior, interest or inclination.
    • She doesn't come around any more, cuz she had a kid. She's on the family train now.

Verb (1)

train (third-person singular simple present trains, present participle training, simple past and past participle trained)

  1. (intransitive) To practice an ability.
    • She trained seven hours a day to prepare for the Olympics.
  2. (transitive) To teach and form (someone) by practice; to educate (someone).
    • You can't train a pig to write poetry.
    • The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west...2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18
    1. (transitive, machine learning) To feed data into an algorithm, usually based on a neural network, to create a machine learning model that can perform some task.
      • At least 10 lawsuits have been filed this year against A.I. companies, accusing them of training their systems on artists’ creative work without consent.2023 July 15, Sheera Frenkel, Stuart A. Thompson, “‘Not for Machines to Harvest’: Data Revolts Break Out Against A.I.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  3. (intransitive) To improve one's fitness.
    • I trained with weights all winter.
  4. (intransitive) To proceed in sequence.
  5. (transitive) To move (a gun) laterally so that it points in a different direction.
    • The assassin had trained his gun on the minister.
  6. (transitive) To encourage (a plant or branch) to grow in a particular direction or shape, usually by pruning and bending.
    • The vine had been trained over the pergola.
    • He trains the young branches to the right hand or to the left.1805, Francis Jeffrey, The Edinburgh Review
  7. (transitive) To transport (something) by train.
    • Colson was to truck the 'plane to Alice Springs, where it would be trained to Adelaide for repairs.1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 46
  8. (intransitive) To travel by train.
    • As I trained westward across Europe, I read newspaper articles from the Sixties describing placards on the pub’s walls that explained to patrons how to order lager, brandy, and gin in Esperanto.2026 June, Katie Thornton, “Love Language: The undying dream of Esperanto”, in Harper's Magazine, →ISSN
  9. (transitive) To trace (a lode or any mineral appearance) to its head.
  10. (transitive) To create a trainer (cheat patch) for; to apply cheats to (a game).
    • I got a twix on the 128 version being fixed and trained by Mad Max at M2K BBS 208-587-7636 in Mountain Home Idaho. He fixes many games and puts them on his board. One of my sources for games and utils.2000, Sensei David O.E. Mohr - Lord Ronin from Q-Link, “WTB:"The Last V-8" C128 game -name correction”, in comp.sys.cbm (Usenet)
    • In the mid-1980s, demoparties were also copyparties, where the first so called hot releases of cracked and trained games changed hands. However, illegal software copying later disappeared […]2021, Mark J. P. Wolf, Encyclopedia of Video Games
  11. (obsolete, transitive) To draw (something) along; to trail, to drag (something).
    • [I]t pleaſed the grekes at that tyme to ſe yͤ body of Hector ſo trayned by Achilles⸝ bycauſe he was wont to be ſo redoubtab[l]e to them⸝ […]1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “Of the Verbe”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns...
    • In hollow cube / Training his devilish enginery.1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  12. (intransitive, obsolete) To trail down or along the ground.

Noun (2)

train (countable and uncountable, plural trains)

  1. (obsolete, uncountable) Treachery; deceit.
    • In the meane time, through that false Ladies traine / He was surprisd, and buried under beare, / Ne ever to his worke returnd againe [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  2. (countable, obsolete) A trick or stratagem.
  3. (countable, obsolete) A trap for animals, a snare; (figuratively) a trap in general.
  4. (countable, obsolete) A lure; a decoy.
  5. (countable, obsolete) A live bird, handicapped or disabled in some way, provided for a young hawk to kill as training or enticement.
  6. (countable, obsolete) A clue or trace.

Verb (2)

train (third-person singular simple present trains, present participle training, simple past and past participle trained)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To draw by persuasion, artifice, or the like; to attract by stratagem; to entice; to allure.
    • If but a dozen French / Were there in arms, they would be as a call / To train ten thousand English to their side.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note.c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  2. (colloquial, obsolete) To be on intimate terms with.

Noun (3)

train (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) train oil, whale oil

Proper noun capitalized: Train

Train (plural Trains)

  1. A surname.

train meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

train in Hindi

line of connected cars or carriages
ट्रेन ṭren, रेलगाड़ी relgāṛī, गाड़ी gāṛī

train in Tamil

line of connected cars or carriages
ரயில் rayil, புகைவண்டி pukaivaṇṭi, கோச்சி kōcci, புகையிரதம் pukaiyiratam, தொடருந்து toṭaruntu, தூமரதம் tūmaratam
group of animals, vehicles, or people
அணி aṇi
to practice an ability
பயில் payil
to teach a task
கற்பி kaṟpi

train in Marathi

line of connected cars or carriages
आगगाडी āggāḍī, रेल्वे relve, गाडी gāḍī, ट्रेन ṭren

train in Urdu

line of connected cars or carriages
ریل گاڑی rel gāṛī, گاڑی gāṛī, قِطار qitār, ریل rel, ٹرین ṭren
More languagesFewer languages
train in Bengali
ট্রেন ṭren, রেলগাড়ি relgaṛi
train in Telugu
రైలు railu, ట్రయిను ṭrayinu
train in Malayalam
തീവണ്ടി tīvaṇṭi, പരിശീലിയ്ക്കുക pariśīliykkuka
train in Kannada
ಹೊಗೆಬಂಡಿ hogebaṇḍi, ರೈಲು railu, ಧೂಮಶಕಟ dhūmaśakaṭa
train in Punjabi
ਗੱਡੀ gaḍḍī, ریل گَڈی rel gaḍī
train in Gujarati
આગગાડી āgagāḍī
train in Odia
ଟ୍ରେନ୍ ṭren
train in Sanskrit
लौहपथगामिनी lauhaphathagāminī, रेलयानम् relayānam
train in Sinhala
කෝච්චිය kōcciya
train in Assamese
ৰেলগাড়ী relgari
train in Nepali
ट्रेन
train in Pashto
اورګاډی orgâḍay
train in Tagalog
tren, sagayad, saya de cola, magsanay
train in Arabic
قِطَار qiṭār, قطر ʔaṭr, قطار qiṭār, درب darrab
train in Malay
kereta api, keretapi, tren, kereta lipan
train in Indonesian
kereta api, kereta
train in Persian
قَطَار qatār, قَطار ġatâr, تِرَن teran
train in Thai
รถไฟ rót-fai, หัด hàt, ฝึกหัด fʉ̀k-hàt
train in Vietnamese
xe lửa, tàu hỏa, tàu lửa, hỏa xa
train in Myanmar
မီးရထား mi:ra.hta:

Examples of train in a sentence

  • The train arrived at the station.
  • Lace sleeves, a demure neckline, a full skirt and a relatively modest train.2011 April 20, Imogen Fox, The Guardian:
  • Fawn and pearl of the lyre-bird's train, / Sheen of the bronze-wing, blue of the crane; / Cream of the plover, grey of the dove; / These are the hues of the land I love!1917, William Henry Fitchett, Australia in the making, page xii:
  • ...the comet expands, its vapours are developed and escape in jets towards the radiant star; then we see them driven back on each side of the head and the caudal train commencing.2014, Camille Flammarion, Popular Astronomy, →ISBN, page 515:
  • Grace was glad the citizenry did not know Katherine Gordon was in the king’s train, but she was beginning to understand Henry’s motive for including the pretender’s wife.2009, Anne Easter Smith, The King's Grace:

All 40 example sentences with train

Forms of train

Noun
pluraltrains
Verb
third-person singular presenttrains
present participletraining
past participletrained
pasttrained
Proper noun
pluralTrains

Past tense of train: trained

Plural of train: trains

Origin of train

From Middle English trayne (“train”), from Old French train (“a delay, a drawing out”), from traïner (“to pull out, to draw”), from Vulgar Latin *traginō, from *tragō, from Latin trahō (“to pull, to draw”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tregʰ- (“to pull, draw, drag”). The verb was derived from the noun in Middle English. For the meaning to teach compare typologically Russian ната́скивать (natáskivatʹ) (akin to тащи́ть (taščítʹ)).

From Middle English trayne (“treachery”), from Anglo-Norman traine, Middle French traïne, from traïr (“to betray”).

From Dutch traan (“tear, drop”), from Middle Dutch trâen, from Old Dutch trān, from Proto-West Germanic *trahnu (“tear”). Compare German Träne (“tear”), Tran (“train oil”).

Words formed from train

Phrases with train

119 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with train

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about train

What does train mean?
Train means the elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground.
What is train in Hindi?
Train in Hindi is ट्रेन (ṭren), रेलगाड़ी (relgāṛī), गाड़ी (gāṛī). See Train meaning in Hindi.
How do you use train in a sentence?
The train arrived at the station.
What part of speech is train?
Train can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce train?
Train is pronounced /ˈtɹeɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of train?
The plural of train is trains.

Words near train in the dictionary

  1. trailsmen
  2. trailway
  3. trailways
  4. trailwear
  5. traily
  6. train
  7. train beat
  8. train bombing
  9. train bottle
  10. train bottles
  11. train captain

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: train (page history and authors); Train (page history and authors); train (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-a train.ogg, en-us-train.ogg, Train.wav.

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