guardrail

noun

guard·​rail ˈgärd-ˌrāl 

: a railing guarding usually against danger

especially : a barrier placed along the edge of a highway at dangerous points

Synonyms of guardrail

• railing
• rail

Examples of guardrail in a Sentence

the car ran off the road, but fortunately only hit the guardrail

Recent Examples on the Web

But with open source models, these classifiers can easily be stripped away and the guardrails that might be trained into a model can also easily be jailbroken. — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 2 July 2026

Here’s why some Republicans are urgently calling for a special session to establish guardrails. — Matthew Kelly, Kansas City Star, 2 July 2026

Having dismantled the guardrails that Harrington built to exclude communists, the group established new guardrails to exclude anybody opposed to Israel’s destruction. — Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 1 July 2026

However, senior administration officials became worried that users might be able to circumvent Fable 5’s guardrails — though experts disagreed over the severity of the risk. — Jared Perlo, NBC news, 1 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for guardrail

• airmail
• assail
• avail
• bewail
• blackmail
• cattail
• cocktail
• curtail
• derail
• detail
• dovetail
• email

Kids Definition

guardrail

noun

guard·​rail ˈgär-ˌdrāl 

: a protective railing placed along dangerous areas (as of a road)