Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One that splits logs, as for fences.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who splits logs into rails for making a rail fence.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a laborer who splits logs to build split-rail fences
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rail-splitter.
Examples
-
And while the old rail-splitter himself does not make it much into the annals of barbecue lore, an interesting episode involving the 1860 presidential campaign does.
Smoke Signals: Celebrate Washington’s birthday with barbecue 2011
-
Lincoln the rail-splitter wasn't just a thinker, a lawyer or a president.
-
Lincoln wasn't just a rail-splitter; in matters of religion he was a fence sitter.
May 2005 2005
-
For more than a century before Roosevelt, politicians had been content with symbolic expressions of solidarity with common folk Lincoln's supporters depicting him as a rail-splitter, or with attacks on selected groups of the rich.
America's First Dynasty Richard Brookhiser 2002
-
Lincoln, the rail-splitter, and whose name was Abe.
"Co. Aytch" Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment or, A Side Show of the Big Show Sam R. Watkins
-
Here is where Lincoln gained his great reputation as a rail-splitter.
Hidden Treasures Or, Why Some Succeed While Others Fail Harry A. Lewis
-
The rail-splitter upon the sparsely settled lands of Kentucky was fired with a purpose and a recognition of his place among men.
The American Missionary — Volume 52, No. 3, September, 1898 Various
-
I remember how I struggled against their arguments that Lincoln was an uneducated, uncultured rail-splitter.
Between the Lines Secret Service Stories Told Fifty Years After Henry Bascom Smith
-
They thought of him as coming from that stratum of clay that could be molded into a rail-splitter and, when the need arose, remodeled into the nation's leader.
-
Thunderous cheers for "the rail-splitter" resounded, for this slur on the statesman had recoiled on aspersers and was used as a title of honor.
Public Speaking Irvah Lester Winter
MaryW commented on the word rail-splitter
Mark Essig, Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (New York: Basic Books, 2015), ch. 11.May 9, 2016