0 past simple and past participle of derail
1 If a train derails or is derailed, it comes off the railway tracks.
2 to prevent a plan or process from succeeding:
Although cars stream by, pedestrians lose the impetus to move forward, derailed by this cool pool of sound with its mysterious, chantlike hum.
The train derailed, he was thrown off, and both legs were broken.
The events of 1956 also derailed my research program.
It was certainly a cultural collision that derailed this doctorpatient relationship and interfered with the resident's ability to fulfill his duty to his patient.
This was a colossal failure, where cynical manipulation, massive corruption, and state terror derailed an expensive attempt to impose ' democracy ' from above.
At times, they worried that their original research ideas might be derailed.
Trains refusing to stop were to be derailed.
Shortly thereafter, the train derailed while crossing over a buckled rail joint (a "snake-head").
