macadam
noun
Pronunciation
muh-KAD-um
Definition
: a roadway or pavement of small closely packed broken stone
Examples
The sloping, curved street saw light traffic and had a smooth macadam surface that made it popular with skateboarders.
"Littered on the beach are nearly a dozen big slabs of macadam and even larger chunks of concrete that have slid down the cliff." — Chris Burrell, The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Massachusetts), 20 Aug. 2016
Did You Know?
In 1783, inventor John Loudon McAdam returned to his native Scotland after amassing a fortune in New York City. He became the road trustee for his district and quickly set his inventiveness to remedying the terrible condition of local roads. After numerous experiments, he created a new road surfacing material made of bits of stone that became compressed into a solid mass as traffic passed over them. His invention revolutionised road construction and transportation, and engineers and the public alike honored him by using his name (respelled macadam) as a generic term for the material or pavement made from it. He is further immortalized in the verb macadamise, which names the process of installing macadam on a road.
Test Your Memory
What is the meaning of myrmidon, our September 11th Word of the Day?
Merriam-Webster
http://writingforchildrenstage.blogspot.com.au/
No comments:
Post a Comment