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Rail

.

To sit on the rail. To shuffle off a direct answer; to hedge or to fence; to reserve the decision of one’s vote. Here rail means the fence, and “to sit on the rail” to sit on one side. A common American phrase.

“If he said ‘Yes,ʹ there was an end to any church support at once; if ‘No,ʹ he might as well go home at once. So he tried to sit on the rail again.”—T. Terrell: Lady Delmar, chap. i.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Rag-water
Rags of Antisthenes
Rags and Jags
Ragamuffin (French, maroufle)
Ragged Robin
Raghu
Ragman Roll
Ragnarok [twilight of the gods]
Ragout
Rahu
Rail
Railway Abbreviations
Railway King
Railway Signals
Railways
Rain
Rain Gauge
Rainbow
Rainbow Chasers
Raining Tree (The)
Rainy Day (A)