Associations to the word «Derail»

Wiktionary

DERAIL, noun. A device placed on railway tracks causing a train to derail.
DERAIL, verb. (transitive) To cause to come off the tracks.
DERAIL, verb. (intransitive) To come off the tracks.
DERAIL, verb. (intransitive) To deviate from the previous course or direction.
DERAIL, verb. (transitive) To cause to deviate from a set course or direction.

Dictionary definition

DERAIL, verb. Cause to run off the tracks; "they had planned to derail the trains that carried atomic waste".
DERAIL, verb. Run off or leave the rails; "the train derailed because a cow was standing on the tracks".

Wise words

Words are always getting conventionalized to some secondary meaning. It is one of the works of poetry to take the truants in custody and bring them back to their right senses.
William Butler Yeats