The act of limiting ones options to a single track, irregardless of other options; grabbed by the proverbial balls and yanked towards a single destination.
"She railroaded me into this marriage by getting pregnant."
"I was railroaded by my in-laws into this vacation."
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"To railroad" means to rig a situation such that events can only play out in a particular manner, or to a particular end. When applied to a trial, it means to manipulate the judicial system such that a defendant is virtually guaranteed a conviction. The metaphor derives from the nature of a railroad track, which does not offer a train the ability to choose its path of travel.
"The lead prosecutor railroaded Eddy into a first-degree murder conviction: she relied heavily on the testimony of unqualified experts."
"If you are hosting a murder-mystery party, avoid railroading your guests into quickly solving the case. Give them freedom to pursue tangents in the storyline they find interesting."
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In gaming, the act of forcing a player to "choose to" do something they don't really want to in order to advance the plot according to the wishes or designs of the GM.
Thus, the player feels like they're being moved through a world (or plot) as if on train tracks, without any choice on where to go.
"So we have to search the lower dungeon to find the key, despite the fact that this door is rotten and my character has 19 strength? Stop railroading us!"
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1. to get someone unjustly convicted
2. force a resolution quickly
3. to coerce someone into doing something they would not otherwise do
I think he wanted to railroad congress.
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Literal meanings:
1. N., A roadway paved with a track made of rails, upon which locomotives push or pull a train of cars or trailers carrying people or freight.
2. Adj., Pertaining to such a roadway or the trains that travel upon it.
3. N., The industry of transporting people or freight by rail, or one or more of the companies within that industry.
4. Adj., Pertaining to that industry.
5. V., Transport upon a railroad.
Slang meanings:
1. V., to coerce, trick, or seduce others into a course of action that they would not otherwise choose. This includes, but is not limited to, specifically sexual situations.
2. N., Eleven, as if the two parallel numerals were the rails of a railroad track.
Literal: Southern Pacific (3) railroad's old (2) railroad cars can still be found along abandoned stretches of (1) railroad, because the industry can't be bothered to (5) railroad them to (4) railroad stations.
Slang:
1. Popular culture isn't going to be railroaded into adopting a narrow-mindedly specific sexual situation as the definition of railroad simply because someone described his favorite life experience as an UrbanDictionary definition.
2. We use the 802-railroad-G wireless protocol. (See WAP and 802.11g.)
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A term describing the process of forcing the player characters in a Role-Playing Game to complete a certain task before continuing the adventure.
"The GM has subtely instructed us to go to this town before we can finish the damn story. I bet he received a Masters Degree in Railroading."
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