'Underground Railroad' definitions:

Definition of 'Underground Railroad'

From: WordNet
noun
Secret aid to escaping slaves that was provided by abolitionists in the years before the American Civil War [syn: Underground Railroad, Underground Railway]

Definition of 'Underground railroad'

From: GCIDE
  • Railroad \Rail"road`\ (r[=a]l"r[=o]d`), Railway \Rail"way`\ (r[=a]l"w[=a]`), n.
  • 1. A road or way consisting of one or more parallel series of iron or steel rails, patterned and adjusted to be tracks for the wheels of vehicles, and suitably supported on a bed or substructure. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: The modern railroad is a development and adaptation of the older tramway. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. The road, track, etc., with all the lands, buildings, rolling stock, franchises, etc., pertaining to them and constituting one property; as, a certain railroad has been put into the hands of a receiver. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: Railway is the commoner word in England; railroad the commoner word in the United States. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: In the following and similar phrases railroad and railway are used interchangeably: [1913 Webster]
  • Atmospheric railway, Elevated railway, etc. See under Atmospheric, Elevated, etc.
  • Cable railway. See Cable road, under Cable.
  • Ferry railway, a submerged track on which an elevated platform runs, for carrying a train of cars across a water course.
  • Gravity railway, a railway, in a hilly country, on which the cars run by gravity down gentle slopes for long distances after having been hauled up steep inclines to an elevated point by stationary engines.
  • Railway brake, a brake used in stopping railway cars or locomotives.
  • Railway car, a large, heavy vehicle with flanged wheels fitted for running on a railway. [U.S.]
  • Railway carriage, a railway passenger car. [Eng.]
  • Railway scale, a platform scale bearing a track which forms part of the line of a railway, for weighing loaded cars.
  • Railway slide. See Transfer table, under Transfer.
  • Railway spine (Med.), an abnormal condition due to severe concussion of the spinal cord, such as occurs in railroad accidents. It is characterized by ataxia and other disturbances of muscular function, sensory disorders, pain in the back, impairment of general health, and cerebral disturbance, -- the symptoms often not developing till some months after the injury.
  • Underground railroad Underground railway. (a) A railroad or railway running through a tunnel, as beneath the streets of a city. (b) Formerly, a system of cooperation among certain active antislavery people in the United States prior to 1866, by which fugitive slaves were secretly helped to reach Canada.
  • Note: [In the latter sense railroad, and not railway, was usually used.] "Their house was a principal entrep[^o]t of the underground railroad." --W. D. Howells. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Underground railroad'

From: GCIDE
  • Underground \Un"der*ground`\, a.
  • 1. Being below the surface of the ground; as, an underground story or apartment. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Done or occurring out of sight; secret. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]
  • Underground railroad or Underground railway. See under Railroad. [1913 Webster]