"thrain" meaning in English

See thrain in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: thrains [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} thrain (plural thrains)
  1. (dated) Pronunciation spelling of train, representing Ireland English. Tags: alt-of, dated, pronunciation-spelling Alternative form of: train, representing Ireland English
    Sense id: en-thrain-en-noun-Sop7hCB8 Categories (other): English pronunciation spellings, Irish English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 67 33 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 59 41 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 61 39
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2

Numeral

Etymology: Blend of three + twain. Etymology templates: {{blend|en|three|twain}} Blend of three + twain Head templates: {{head|en|numeral}} thrain
  1. (nonstandard, often humorous) Three, as coordinate term to (and used in similar sentences to) twain. Tags: humorous, nonstandard, often
    Sense id: en-thrain-en-num-IFlgnIq0 Categories (other): English blends
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "three",
        "3": "twain"
      },
      "expansion": "Blend of three + twain",
      "name": "blend"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Blend of three + twain.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "numeral"
      },
      "expansion": "thrain",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "num",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English blends",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              96,
              102
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1921, Preacher and Homiletic Monthly, page 205:",
          "text": "Or, all the churches give up their names and get married in a union organization—the twain (or \"thrain\") becoming one flesh. None of these things occurred at Pepperell.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              162,
              168
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1959, Christine Brooke-Rose, The Sycamore Tree:",
          "text": "[…] twain - yes, they used old words and proverbs and catch-phrases and slogans when they did not wish to face reality - shall meet, because if the twain, or the thrain, or the quain, or the multain complications of life, and love[…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              29,
              35
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1996, Alexis Page, Three-guy Weekend, Bantam Books for Young Readers, →ISBN:",
          "text": "\"[The] twain meet—or is that thrain?\" \"That's brilliant!\" I said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              65,
              71
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2011 11, Stephen Brennan, The Best War Stories Ever Told, Skyhorse Publishing Inc., →ISBN, page 535:",
          "text": "[…] sink me ship, master gunner, sink her, split her in twain—or thrain, if you feel like it. Don't bother about anything else; she's your bird.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              71,
              77
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2019 October 15, S. C. Emmett, The Throne of the Five Winds, Orbit, →ISBN:",
          "text": "\"Tis not an omen, but an assassin, Banh.\" […] \"A thing may be twain or thrain at once, my student.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              20,
              26
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2020 July 14, Eric Darton, Free City, Deep Vellum Publishing, →ISBN:",
          "text": "I am torn in twain, thrain, and quatrain![…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Three, as coordinate term to (and used in similar sentences to) twain."
      ],
      "id": "en-thrain-en-num-IFlgnIq0",
      "links": [
        [
          "Three",
          "three"
        ],
        [
          "twain",
          "twain#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(nonstandard, often humorous) Three, as coordinate term to (and used in similar sentences to) twain."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "nonstandard",
        "often"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "thrain"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "thrains",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "thrain (plural thrains)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "train"
        },
        {
          "word": "representing Ireland English"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English pronunciation spellings",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Irish English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "67 33",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "59 41",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "61 39",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              21,
              27
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1896, Life, page 466:",
          "text": "\"[…] the two-o'clock thrain?\" \"Yes,\" was the sleepy reply from within.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1904, Justin McCarthy, Maurice Francis Egan, Charles Welsh, Douglas Hyde, Lady Gregory, James Jeffrey Roche, Irish Literature: Daunt, page 912:",
          "text": "... wud a hundred sogers to help him out in the job he had in hand. He landed afther a good voyage in the harbor of Cork, an' at wance he put matthers in thrain.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              94,
              100
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1956, Sean O'Casey, Mirror in My House: The Autobiographies of Sean O'Casey:",
          "text": "[…] Tunis an' Thripoli, figs from Turkey, […] transported outa the sun by bullock or mule, in thrain an' boat to the wind-swept streets o' Dublin;[…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Pronunciation spelling of train, representing Ireland English."
      ],
      "id": "en-thrain-en-noun-Sop7hCB8",
      "links": [
        [
          "Pronunciation spelling",
          "pronunciation spelling"
        ],
        [
          "train",
          "train#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated) Pronunciation spelling of train, representing Ireland English."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "dated",
        "pronunciation-spelling"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "thrain"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English blends",
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English numerals",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "three",
        "3": "twain"
      },
      "expansion": "Blend of three + twain",
      "name": "blend"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Blend of three + twain.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "numeral"
      },
      "expansion": "thrain",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "num",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English humorous terms",
        "English nonstandard terms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              96,
              102
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1921, Preacher and Homiletic Monthly, page 205:",
          "text": "Or, all the churches give up their names and get married in a union organization—the twain (or \"thrain\") becoming one flesh. None of these things occurred at Pepperell.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              162,
              168
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1959, Christine Brooke-Rose, The Sycamore Tree:",
          "text": "[…] twain - yes, they used old words and proverbs and catch-phrases and slogans when they did not wish to face reality - shall meet, because if the twain, or the thrain, or the quain, or the multain complications of life, and love[…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              29,
              35
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1996, Alexis Page, Three-guy Weekend, Bantam Books for Young Readers, →ISBN:",
          "text": "\"[The] twain meet—or is that thrain?\" \"That's brilliant!\" I said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              65,
              71
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2011 11, Stephen Brennan, The Best War Stories Ever Told, Skyhorse Publishing Inc., →ISBN, page 535:",
          "text": "[…] sink me ship, master gunner, sink her, split her in twain—or thrain, if you feel like it. Don't bother about anything else; she's your bird.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              71,
              77
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2019 October 15, S. C. Emmett, The Throne of the Five Winds, Orbit, →ISBN:",
          "text": "\"Tis not an omen, but an assassin, Banh.\" […] \"A thing may be twain or thrain at once, my student.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              20,
              26
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2020 July 14, Eric Darton, Free City, Deep Vellum Publishing, →ISBN:",
          "text": "I am torn in twain, thrain, and quatrain![…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Three, as coordinate term to (and used in similar sentences to) twain."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Three",
          "three"
        ],
        [
          "twain",
          "twain#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(nonstandard, often humorous) Three, as coordinate term to (and used in similar sentences to) twain."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "nonstandard",
        "often"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "thrain"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "thrains",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "thrain (plural thrains)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "train"
        },
        {
          "word": "representing Ireland English"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English pronunciation spellings",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Irish English"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              21,
              27
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1896, Life, page 466:",
          "text": "\"[…] the two-o'clock thrain?\" \"Yes,\" was the sleepy reply from within.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1904, Justin McCarthy, Maurice Francis Egan, Charles Welsh, Douglas Hyde, Lady Gregory, James Jeffrey Roche, Irish Literature: Daunt, page 912:",
          "text": "... wud a hundred sogers to help him out in the job he had in hand. He landed afther a good voyage in the harbor of Cork, an' at wance he put matthers in thrain.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              94,
              100
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1956, Sean O'Casey, Mirror in My House: The Autobiographies of Sean O'Casey:",
          "text": "[…] Tunis an' Thripoli, figs from Turkey, […] transported outa the sun by bullock or mule, in thrain an' boat to the wind-swept streets o' Dublin;[…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Pronunciation spelling of train, representing Ireland English."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Pronunciation spelling",
          "pronunciation spelling"
        ],
        [
          "train",
          "train#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated) Pronunciation spelling of train, representing Ireland English."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "dated",
        "pronunciation-spelling"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "thrain"
}

Download raw JSONL data for thrain meaning in English (4.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-19 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (d1270d2 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.