ride on a rail

verb

To be subjected to a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers. The victim was then paraded around town or taken to the city limits and dumped by the roadside.

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Meanings

verbride on a rail (third-person singular simple present rides on a rail, present participle riding on a rail, simple past rode on a rail, past participle ridden on a rail)

present singular third person rides on a rail · participle present riding on a rail · past rode on a rail · participle past ridden on a rail

  1. historicalidiomaticTo be subjected to a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers. The victim was then paraded around town or taken to the city limits and dumped by the roadside.

    ...they'd be along pretty soon and give me 'bout half an hour's start, and then run me down if they could; and if they got me they'd tar and feather me and ride me on a rail, sure. I didn't wait for no breakfast--I warn't hungry.

    1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XIX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

Source: ride on a rail on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.