Dictionary

tramline en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈtɹæmlaɪn/

Etymology

From tram + line.

Meanings

1. The rails that a tram runs on.
   • Transport, motorways and tramlines / Starting and then stopping 1997, “Let Down”, in OK Computer, performed by Radiohead:
2. (UK) Either of the two pairs of sidelines marked on a tennis court which mark the outside of the singles and doubles playing areas.
3. A scratch on a film, usually vertical, that extends through multiple frames.
   • The tramline is therefore much less obvious on the screen. Also, if the scratch is on the base (i.e., on the back of the film), then it will not be in sharp focus. 1984, Movie Maker, volume 18, number 2, page 47:
4. A mark or bruise having the shape of two parallel lines.
   • a tramline scar
   • The well-reported "tramlines" or parallel punctate scars on either side of the vein were seen in only four patients. 1970 June 13, Dorothy I. Vollum, “Skin Lesions in Drug Addicts”, in British Medical Journal, volume 2, number 5710, London: British Medical Association, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 647:
5. (qualifier:Oxford English Dictionary jargon) A pair of vertical bars (||) placed to the left of the headword in certain editions of the OED to indicate that the term is "alien or not fully naturalized" (such as a recent borrowing).
   • Those words that [James] Murray classified as denizens and aliens, as well as those casuals approaching these two prior categories, were marked by two parallel lines beside the headword (||), a symbol known by the in-house term tramline. Murray himself admitted to the inherent subjectivity of his method of classification, which unsurprisingly led to a number of inconsistencies in the use of tramlines, and may even have contributed to the patchiness of the OED's regional coverage that Weiner acknowledged many years later. 2014 May 23, Danica Salazar, “Towards improved coverage of Southeast Asian Englishes in the Oxford English Dictionary”, in Lexicography, Berlin: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Forms

Relateds

alley

Synonyms

tram track

Translations (18)

nb sporvei (rails that trams run on) · et trammiliin (rails that trams run on) · nn trikkeline (rails that trams run on) · de Straßenbahnlinie (rails that trams run on) · fr ligne de tramway (rails that trams run on) · tr tramvay hattı (rails that trams run on) · ru трамва́йная ли́ния (rails that trams run on) · is sporvagnaleið (rails that trams run on) · be трамва́йная лі́нія (rails that trams run on) · nb trikkelinje (rails that trams run on) · pl linia tramwajowa (rails that trams run on) · nl tramlijn (rails that trams run on) · sv spårvagnslinje (rails that trams run on) · da sporvognslinje (rails that trams run on) · fi raitiovaunulinja (rails that trams run on) · uk трамва́йна лі́нія (rails that trams run on) · nn trikkelinje (rails that trams run on) · cmn 電車線路 /电车线路 (rails that trams run on)

tramline en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈtɹæmlaɪn/

Etymology

From tram + line.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) Of a vehicle: to tend to follow the contours of the ground with its wheels.

Forms

Synonyms

nibble