fishplate

English

Etymology

fish +‎ plate. See fish (“curved wooden bar used to strengthen a ship's mast”).

Noun
A fishplate joining two sections of bullhead rail

fishplate (plural fishplates)

  1. (rail transport) A metal bar that is bolted to the ends of two rails to join them together in a track.
    • 1901, Gipps, George, The Fighting in North China (up to the Fall of Tientsin City), Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, OL 23299616M, page 40:
      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.

Verb

fishplate (third-person singular simple present fishplates, present participle fishplating, simple past and past participle fishplated)

  1. (transitive, rail transport) To connect (rails) together using a fishplate.

Further reading

Anagrams
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