railroad car
6
2.5
- noun
- /ˈreɪlˌrɔrd kɑr/
- US
:
vagón
- Each railroad car on the track was carefully inspected before the train departed.
What is a Pullman car as opposed to an ordinary railroad car?
- What is a Pullman car as opposed to an ordinary railroad car?
- And people in the area are complaining that this that the smell from those railroad cars is becoming unbearable.
- But there was a lot of material going in off of railroad cars and stuff.
- The the mechanical railroad car that took twos to Auschwitz is actually there.
Examples
-
The freight railroad car was filled with goods ready to be shipped across the country.
-
There were just over a thousand of them, each the size of a railroad car.
Fiction book (2000) -
Across the bars, the door of the railroad car is open.
Fiction book (1996) -
A small group of men had gathered near an empty railroad car.
Fiction book (2001) -
When he was the champion, he rode in private railroad cars that rich boxing fans loaned him.
Fiction book (1990) -
The cans of fresh oysters were shipped in refrigerated railroad cars.
Academic text (1996) -
Many of these products are stored in warehouses and shipped back and forth across the border in railroad cars and long-haul trucks.
Academic text (2007) -
Special railroad cars on this run were outfitted for wealthy travelers and their retinue of servants.
Academic text (2009) -
The oysters were packed in sacks, 600 to the sack; each railroad car held 100 sacks.
Academic text (1996) -
The passenger boarded the train and settled into her seat in the railroad car.
Synonyms
130
5.7
A vehicle on tracks that carries passengers or goods
5
3.7
A vehicle that runs on railway tracks to carry people or goods
1
2.3
A vehicle that runs on tracks and carries people or goods
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is fully compositional: 'railroad' identifies the railway context and 'car' names a vehicle, so together they denote a vehicle that runs on railway tracks. This literal, cross-linguistically common noun + noun combination is immediately derivable by a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Railroad car comes from the simple image of a car that travels on a railroad. Because trains were made of many separate cars that 'carry passengers or goods', railroad car now means a vehicle that runs on tracks to carry people or goods.