on the rails

prepositional phrase

In working order, functioning properly.

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Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. idiomaticIn working order, functioning properly.

    To The wineplace.com and Chris, Marshy and Chris for keeping me on the rails.

    2000, Paul Clarke, Learning Schools, Learning Systems, →ISBN, page vii
    2 more examples

    Logic is nothing other than methods we have learned that keep thinking on the rails.

    2001, Frederick Ferre, Living and Value: Toward a Constructive Postmodern Ethics, →ISBN, page 4

    Menin Road got the offensive back on the rails but conditions, which had been deplorable before, favoured the outcome.

    2012, Peter Pedersen, ANZACS on the Western Front, →ISBN
  2. In a train or on trains.

    Nevertheless, he loved traveling on the rails and became a lifelong railroad buff.

    2014, Jeri Quinzio, Food on the Rails: The Golden Era of Railroad Dining, →ISBN, page 12
    2 more examples

    For several Saturdays after he'd seen a film about men who lived on the rails, he left home with a Spam sandwich in a paper bag, a compass and a ball of twine (though he wasn't sure why he included the twine).

    2005, Dan Gerber, A Voice from the River: A Novel, →ISBN, page 14

    And then over two months of hitch-hiking' and trekking in Banff and Jasper National Parks, and a few hundred miles on the rails.

    2012, Meynardie Blanchard, Rails Trails and Other Tales, →ISBN, page 31
  3. hobbiesRacing toward the inside, near the fence that bounds the track.
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, rail.

    The larger the wheels, the less will any dust, twigs, or inequalities on the rails affect them.

    1830, Thomas Earle, A Treatise on Railroads and Internal Communications, etc, page 54
    1 more example

    Now we lounged on the decks all the time, feet up on the rails while a string band played for us.

    2013, Reg Twigg, Survivor on the River Kwai, →ISBN
Cite this entry
APA

on the rails. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20rails

MLA

“on the rails.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20rails. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “on the rails,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20rails.

Source: on the rails on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.