train definition

1. To be drilled in military exercises; to do duty in a military company.

2. To prepare by exercise, diet, instruction, etc, for any physical contest; as, to train for a boat race.

1. That which draws along; especially, persuasion, artifice, or enticement; allurement. "Now to my charms, and to my wily trains."

2. Hence, something tied to a lure to entice a hawk; also, a trap for an animal; a snare. "With cunning trains him to entrap un wares." (Spenser)

3. That which is drawn along in the rear of, or after, something; that which is in the hinder part or rear. Specifically:

That part of a gown which trails behind the wearer.

The after part of a gun carriage; the trail.

The tail of a bird. "The train steers their flights, and turns their bodies, like the rudder of ship."

4. A number of followers; a body of attendants; a retinue; a suite. "The king's daughter with a lovely train." (Addison) "My train are men of choice and rarest parts." (Shak)

5. A consecution or succession of connected things; a series. "A train of happy sentiments." "The train of ills our love would draw behind it." (Addison) "Rivers now Stream and perpetual draw their humid train." (Milton) "Other truths require a train of ideas placed in order." (Locke)

6. Regular method; process; course; order; as, things now in a train for settlement. "If things were once in this train, . . . Our duty would take root in our nature." (Swift)

7. The number of beats of a watch in any certain time.

8. A line of gunpowder laid to lead fire to a charge, mine, or the like.

9. A connected line of cars or carriages on a railroad.

10. A heavy, long sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, and the like.

11. A roll train; as, a 12-inch train. Roll train, or Train of rolls, a tackle for running guns in and out.

Train, Cars. Train is the word universally used in England with reference to railroad traveling; as, I came in the morning train. In the United States, the phrase the cars has been extensively introduced in the room of train; as, the cars are late; I came in the cars. The English expression is obviously more appropriate, and is prevailing more and more among Americans, to the exclusion of the cars.

Origin: F. Train, OF. Train, trahin; cf. (for some of the senses) F. Traine. See Train.

1. To draw along; to trail; to drag. "In hollow cube Training his devilish enginery." (Milton)

2. To draw by persuasion, artifice, or the like; to attract by stratagem; to entice; to allure. "If but a dozen French Were there in arms, they would be as a call To train ten thousand English to their side." (Shak) "O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note." (Shak) "This feast, I'll gage my life, Is but a plot to train you to your ruin." (Ford)

3. To teach and form by practice; to educate; to exercise; to discipline; as, to train the militia to the manual exercise; to train soldiers to the use of arms. "Our trained bands, which are the trustiest and most proper strength of a free nation." (Milton) "The warrior horse here bred he's taught to train." (Dryden)

4. To break, tame, and accustom to draw, as oxen.

5. <botany> To lead or direct, and form to a wall or espalier; to form to a proper shape, by bending, lopping, or pruning; as, to train young trees. "He trained the young branches to the right hand or to the left." (Jeffrey)

6. <chemical>

To trace, as a lode or any mineral appearance, to its head. To train a gun, to point it at some object either forward or else abaft the beam, that is, not directly on the side. To train, or To train up, to educate; to teach; to form by instruction or practice; to bring up. "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Prov. Xxii. 6) "The first Christians were, by great hardships, trained up for glory." (Tillotson)

Origin: OF. Trahiner, trainer,F. Trainer, LL. Trahinare, trainare, fr. L. Trahere to draw. See Trail.