railroad flat
1
8.1
- noun
- /ˈreɪlˌrɔrd flæt/
- US
:
piso en línea
- In the fun-house mirror distortions of the lens, I could see the apartment behind her, a railroad flat with heavy dark furniture in the living room, including a console TV with a thirteen-inch screen, the likes of which hadn't been manufactured in at least a decade.
Examples
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The family's railroad flat had doors connecting the living room, bedroom, and kitchen directly in a long line.
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Living in a railroad flat means that you walk straight through the kitchen to get to the bedroom.
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"We lived in a railroad flat in the Tenderloin.
Fiction book (1992) -
He had a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bath, all in a row, like a railroad flat.
Fiction book (1992) -
"In fact, Linda told him that a big executive like him shouldn't be living in a crummy railroad flat.
Fiction book (1995) -
We enjoyed the unique layout of our railroad flat, where each room opened directly into the next without any hallways.
How Private
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound pairs 'railroad' (evoking a linear sequence of train cars) with 'flat' (an apartment), so the idea of rooms arranged in a line can be deduced by mapping the railroad's linear layout onto an apartment. This is a metaphorical extension and somewhat dialectal/cultural (specific notion of no hallway, rooms in a row), so learners may need some exposure to infer the exact spatial implication.
Etymology
The term railroad flat may come from the image of a long flat where the rooms are all in a row, like cars on a railroad, so you often have to walk through one room to reach the next. That's why railroad flat means an 'apartment' with rooms arranged 'in a line'.