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Underground Railroad   /ˈəndərgrˌaʊnd rˈeɪlrˌoʊd/   Listen
noun
Railway, Railroad  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. Note: The modern railroad is a development and adaptation of the older tramway.
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. Note: Railway is the commoner word in England; railroad the commoner word in the United States. Note: In the following and similar phrases railroad and railway are used interchangeably:
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 entrepôt of the underground railroad."


adjective
Underground  adj.  
1.
Being below the surface of the ground; as, an underground story or apartment.
2.
Done or occurring out of sight; secret. (Colloq.)
Underground railroad or Underground railway. See under Railroad.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Underground railroad" Quotes from Famous Books



... the Fugitive[5] published frequent reports of the number of fugitives arriving at Sandwich on the Detroit River. In the issue of December 3,1851, he reports 17 arrivals in a week. On April 22, 1852, he records 15 arrivals within the last few days and notes that "the Underground Railroad is doing good business this spring." On May 20, 1852, he reports "quite an accession of refugees to our numbers during the last two weeks" and on June 17 notes the visit of agents from Chester, Pennsylvania, preparatory to the movement of a large number of ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920 • Various
... gave away numerous farms of 50 acres each to indigent families; attempted to colonize tracts in Northern N.Y. with free negroes; assisted fugitive slaves to escape—Peterboro, his home village, 22 miles southwest of Utica, became a station on the "Underground railroad"—and established a nonsectarian church, open to all Christians of whatever shade of belief, in Peterboro. He was an intimate friend of John Brown of Osawatomie, to whom he gave a farm in Essex County. His ...
— The Greatest Highway in the World • Anonymous
... Delaware, Maryland and Virginia having become to a considerable extent breeding farms. Particularly was this the case with the more intelligent and higher developed individual slaves who appeared near the border line. The master felt that such persons would soon make their escape by way of the "Underground Railroad" or otherwise, and hence in order to prevent a total loss, would follow the dictates of business prudence and sell his bright slave man to Georgia. The Maryland or Virginia slave who showed suspicious aspirations was usually checked by the threat, "I'll ...
— The Colored Regulars in the United States Army • T. G. Steward
... itself so forcefully upon him that he immediately arose from the table, unable to eat. He soon returned to America and at once proceeded to devise means to free his brother. Mr. William Chaplain, of New York, had repeatedly urged him to flee by way of the underground railroad, but he was so demoralized and stultified by slavery that he would not make an effort. Mr. Chaplain made a second effort to induce him to escape but he still refused. Henson finally arranged to sell the narrative of his life to secure funds for his liberation. The book sold well in ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 • Various


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