Meanings
plural fishplates
- rail transportA metal bar that is bolted to the ends of two rails to join them together in a track.
The train, minus the three abandoned trucks, again proceeded at a slow pace, with a pump trolley doing pilot ahead ; this was very necessary as a great many sleepers were found to have been burnt underneath the fishplates.
1901, George Gipps, The Fighting in North China (up to the Fall of Tientsin City), Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, →OL, page 40Synonyms: joint bar
present singular third person fishplates · participle present fishplating · participle past fishplated · past fishplated
- transitiverail transportTo connect (rails) together using a fishplate.
One section of the line will consist of 60 ft. lengths of rail welded together on site to form fully continuous rails; another will be of 300 ft. lengths, flash butt-welded in Dinsdale Rail Welding Depot and fishplated together on site; [...].
1959 November, “Talking of Trains: Widening north of York”, in Trains Illustrated, page 518
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA metal bar that is bolted to the ends of two rails to join them together in a track.
Origin
From fish + plate. See fish (“curved wooden bar used to strengthen a ship's mast”).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan eclissa, brida
- eclissametal bar
- bridametal bar
French éclisse
- éclissemetal bar
German Lasche
- Laschemetal bar
Indonesian pelat sambung
- pelat sambungmetal bar
Italian ganascia
- ganasciametal bar
Portuguese eclissa
- eclissametal bar
Russian стыкова́я накла́дка
- стыкова́я накла́дка (stykovája nakládka)metal bar
Cite this entry
fishplate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fishplate
“fishplate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fishplate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fishplate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fishplate.
Source: fishplate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.