monorailn.adj.
/ˈmɒnəreɪl/, U.S. /ˈmɑnəˌreɪl/ A. n.
A single-rail track on which or suspended from which vehicles, machinery, etc., travel; a vehicle, camera, or other object that travels in this way.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > a railway > of specific construction
rackway1825
surface road1835
light railway1842
switchback1863
rack railway1879
monorail1884
chair road1895
cog-railway1896
mono-railway1902
cog-wheel system1904
monoline1992
society > travel > rail travel > rolling stock > [noun] > railway wagon or carriage > monorail car
monorail1884
gyro-car1909
monorailer1963
1884 Minutes Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers 77 408 (heading) The Lartigue elevated mono-rail.
1901 Daily News 14 Mar. 3/2 The Proposed Monorail between Liverpool and Manchester.
1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 143/2 In the Langen mono-rail the car is hung from a single overhead rail; a line on this system is worked between Barmen and Elberfeld, a distance of about 9 miles.
1949 Sun (Baltimore) 3 Oct. 2/7 These chutes will pull the guns out of the rear clam shell doors of the C-82 along monorails attached to the roof of the fuselage.
1958 Daily Mail 17 Jan. 9/4 A trip on the world's first monorail.
1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 16 Feb. (Suppl.) 35/1 One is an overhead monorail down the centre feeding passage to carry a food container from which the rations may be semi-automatically fed into the troughs.
1971 P. D. James Shroud for Nightingale iii. 52 The Yard photographer manœuvred his tripod and camera—a new Cambo monorail.
1979 Amateur Photographer Feb. 55/2 The monorail has separate ‘V’ groove channel drive/supports for focusing and the tripod block.
1991 M. Weiss King's Test ii. vii. 159 A tram on a monorail glided forward.
B. adj. (attributive).
Having or using a single rail; spec. designating or relating to a transportation system where the track is a single rail.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [adjective] > types of track or rail
slow1799
fast1814
fish-jointed1855
prismoidal1874
broad-gauged1881
monorail1885
unballasted1887
sleepered1894
monoline1902
wide gauge1982
1885 Minutes Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers 80 378 (heading) Lartigues' Monorail System of Way.
1891 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 21 Apr. 4/4 The writer advises the construction of a monorail Railway across the island.
1897 Westm. Gaz. 9 Apr. 4/2 Patent electric express railway..built on the mono-rail system.
1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §449 Box hand, box man,..fills monorail bogies with masse cuite.
1964 Daily Tel. 7 Jan. 15/1 A free monorail system may be built in North Buckinghamshire.
1993 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 18 July i. 1/1 This is the first monorail technology application at an airport. We don't know of any other automated people-mover that's been applied in the way we're applying it here.
Compounds
monorail camera n. a camera mounted on a single rail which allows positional adjustment and may also support additional components.
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society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > photography > camera > [noun] > scientific and technical
heliograph1848
revolver1876
spectrograph1884
photochronograph1891
photogrammeter1891
process camera1895
gun-camera1921
microcamera1928
phototimer1942
ballistic camera1945
monorail camera1958
1958 D. Charles Commercial & Industr. Photogr. i. 10 Monorail camera..a recent, mainly metal, engineer-built construction, with a full array of ‘movements’.
1979 P. D. James Expert Witness (BNC) 60 The Document Examination Laboratory with its cabinets and range of monorail cameras took up what some of his colleagues..regarded as more than its fair share of room.
1990 Photopro Spring 45/1 When using a monorail or technical camera, it is normally possible to use a millimetre scale on the focusing rack.
Derivatives
ˈmonorailer n. rare (a) a monorail train; (b) a traveller on a monorail train.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > rail travel > rolling stock > [noun] > railway wagon or carriage > monorail car
monorail1884
gyro-car1909
monorailer1963
1963 Punch 7 Aug. 194/2 The monorailer slid to a halt.
1989 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 15 Mar. 35/1 (heading) Mono-railers find an Oasis.
ˈmonorailing n. rare
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > rail travel > [noun] > by monorail
monorailing1962
1962 R. B. Fuller Epic Poem on Industrialization 44 Their 1929 failure With world monopoly ‘Mono-railing’ Was only caused by the fact that Their first trial section of single rail Was not long enough.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1884