Definition of "rail"

Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.

1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients

A "moving platform" scheme […] is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.

2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly)

There has been another, fairly gradual change in the ATX specification: Initially a lot of power was supplied on the 5V and 3.3V rails, but over time more and more power shifted to 12V because it's more efficient. Modern (ATX12V 2.x) PSUs supply most of their power on the 12V rail and not a lot on the 5V rail, which means a modern PSU may not be able to supply an old board, unless it's a really beefy PSU—because providing 500W on the 12V rail is of very little use to an AT or early ATX system.

2019 December 5, Michal Necasek, “Power Trouble”, in OS/2 Museum‎, archived from the original on 25 September 2022

Rails alone can only ever have a marginal effect on a board's general turning ability.

c. 2000, Nick Carroll, surfline.com

Do a couple rails and chase your own tail

2013, Jason Isbell, Super 8

Mottram of the Indian Survey had ridden thirty and railed one hundred miles from his lonely post in the desert […]

1890, Rudyard Kipling, At the End of the Passage

It ought to be fenced in and railed.

1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe […]

They were brought to London all railed in ropes, like a team of horses in a cart.

1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret

Till thou canst raile the seale from off my bondThou but offend'st thy Lungs to speake so loud:Repaire thy wit good youth, or it will fallTo endlesse ruine. I stand heere for Law.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

He always said: “Let them rail on; he laughs best who laughs last.”

1882, Mark Twain, “The Stolen White Elephant”‎

The Major’s fury clothed and reclothed itself in words as frantically as a woman up in town for one day’s shopping tries on a succession of garments. He reviled and railed at fate and the general scheme of things, he pitied himself with a strong, deep pity too poignant for tears, he condemned every one with whom he had ever come in contact to endless and abnormal punishments.

1910, "Saki", H. H. Munro, The Bag

Chief Joyi railed against the white man, whom he believed had deliberately sundered the Xhosa tribe, dividing brother from brother.

1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus, published 2010, page 27

The Queen may be celebrating her jubilee but the Queen's English Society, which has railed against the misuse and deterioration of the English language, is to fold.

2012 June 4, Lewis Smith, “Queen’s English Society says enuf is enough, innit?: Society formed 40 years ago to protect language against poor spelling and grammar closes because too few people care”, in The Guardian‎, London, archived from the original on 10 March 2016

A course hempen raile about her shoulders.

1592, Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless

his breste and his brayle was bloodé – and hit rayled all over the see.(please add an English translation of this quotation)

1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum iv”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889,

So furiously each other did assayle, / As if their soules they would attonce haue rent / Out of their brests, that streames of bloud did rayle / Adowne, as if their springes of life were spent […].

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie