Word of the Day: Pave
To pave is to put down a surface, such as a road, a highway, or a sidewalk.
- Construction workers are paving the highway.
- The highway was paved with asphalt.
- Some American cities have streets that were paved with bricks or cobblestones.
- Our patio was paved with pavers. A paver is a rectangular block of concrete.
The word “paved” is used as an adjective:
- Most small roads in rural areas are paved, but it’s also very common to see gravel roads. (gravel = rock and sand)
- A newly paved road is nice and smooth.
- Concrete provides a longer lasting paved surface compared to asphalt.
The word “pavement” is a noun. This is used when referring to a hard concrete or asphalt surface.
- Winter weather is hard on pavement.
- The pavement gets very hot in the summer.
- You can see skid marks on the pavement where someone hit the breaks and left a skid mark.
The word “pave” is often used as a type of metaphor, and it’s also found in some expressions:
- The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
- You can’t easily pave over a serious problem. It has to be dealt with directly.
- The Republicans paved over their differences and moved forward as a unified party.
- Jackie Robinson paved the way for other black baseball players to join the major leagues.
- He paved the way for others to follow.
Essential English Dictionary
Visit the Popular English Words Beginning with P page to see the list of all words starting with letter P. For seeing the HiCafe dictionary, visit the Popular English Words with Meaning page.
