macadam

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (6)  · 
The yellow country road merged into macadam, the macadam into asphalt.

View all »
Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Pavement made of layers of compacted broken stone, now usually bound with tar or asphalt.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Water pooled on the black macadam, catching clots of reflective light, and the rain beaded on the shiny red paint of the Cherokee. —  One For The Money
  • The macadam was pocked and cracked where the Jeep had burned, but there was no crime scene tape or charred debris to further mark the spot. —  One For The Money
  • In my teens I thought of it as a monster shaped something like a bear, and I imagined its claws tapping on macadam or sidewalks, and I would turn quickly, just to check, and, of course, there would never be anything there, at least not anything untoward. —  F ;SF; - vol 099 issue 02 - August 2000
  • Luckily they were on the main road; the macadam was smooth, and at that hour there were few other vehicles about The instant he had the pair trotting again, he glanced around- and swore. —  Stephanie Laurens - Lost and Found
  • The ruthlessness of macadam, the pressure of fat tires, the scorching of engines, had not banished the thick grass which the country wants to give its roads, and would give to all its roads if the country were not being constantly "improved." —  Riviera Towns
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 104 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. After John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836), Scottish civil engineer.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Short for Macadam pavement: See macadamize.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/mækˈædəm/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

We are still working on calculating this word's frequency.

Recently looked up

fast-growing · sacrilegious · gauze · forthright · gay-marriage

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich