railroad siding
1
4.6
- noun
- /ˈreɪlˌrɔrd ˈsaɪdɪŋ/
- Specialized
:
vía de apartado
- The plains, even then, had become a wasteland of slag heaps and railroad sidings.
Examples
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It's a railroad siding.
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So I was some kind of explorer of back alleys and railroad sidings and such things, even before I was really old enough to go anywhere far from home.
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As they left the Twelfth Avenue railroad siding, it grew darker, the rain soaking up all the failing light.
Fiction book (1993) -
But it approximates the scene of sawed logs brought to a railroad siding by mule teams described in this story.
Blog text (3) -
The train was parked on the railroad siding while waiting for the next schedule to depart.
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Freight cars were lined up along the railroad siding to be loaded with goods for delivery.
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We watched as the conductor signaled for the train to move back onto the main track from the railroad siding.
Synonyms
2
6.7
A short track beside the main track where trains wait
1
6.8
A short extra track beside the main line used to hold trains or let others pass
1
7.9
A short side track where trains stop or pass each other
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly deducible from combining 'railroad' (railway) with 'siding' (a side track). This is a regular noun–noun compound following common cross-linguistic patterns, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it refers to a side track used for storing or letting trains pass.
Etymology
Railroad siding comes from a simple picture: a siding is a short track beside the main railroad where a train can be moved to 'store' or to 'let pass' another train, so the phrase means a short extra track used to hold trains aside.