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 neither state offers addiction or bankruptcy prevention protections and other guardrails like restricting advertising and requiring a spouse to consent before a joint bank account is used for gambling. —Suzanne King, Kansas City Star, 12 Mar. 2026

Blumenthal and Kim join a list of other lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who want to implement various guardrails on prediction markets. —Lisa Hagen, Hartford Courant, 12 Mar. 2026

Former safety leads at chatbot companies told us guardrails to protect against harmful conversations are most likely to falter in long, meandering conversations. —Allison Gordon, CNN Money, 11 Mar. 2026

That effort triggered its escalating feud with Anthropic PBC, which sought guardrails on using its technology for domestic surveillance and in fully autonomous weapons. —Bloomberg, Mercury News, 10 Mar. 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)