trains

Noun

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.
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
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]...
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

See all 48 meanings of train