tarmac

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Shortening of tarmacadam, which is tar + macadam (crushed stones).

Noun

tarmac (plural tarmacs)

1. (UK, Canada) The bituminous surface of a road.
   • 1922, Michael Arlen, chapter 3/1/1, “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days^[1]:

     How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […] .

2. (aviation) Area of an airport where planes park or maneuver.

Usage notes

• The tarmac are any areas of an airfield that are paved. It is often used to describe planes that are sitting still on a paved road surface due to some sort of delay.

Translations

bituminous road surface

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 柏油路 (cmn) (bóyóulù), 瀝青路 (cmn), 沥青路 (cmn) (lìqīnglù)

• Dutch: bitumen (nl) n, asfalt (nl) n
• Finnish: öljysora (fi), asfaltti (fi), bitumisora (fi)
• French: tarmac (fr) m
• German: Asphalt (de) m, Teermakadam (de) m and n
• Irish: tarmac (ga) m, tarramhacadam (ga) m
• Italian: asfalto (it) m

• Japanese: ターマック (ja) (tāmakku), アスファルト舗装路 (ja) (asufaruto hosōro)
• Korean: 타맥 (ko) (tamaek)
• Russian: гудронированное шоссе (ru) (gudronírovannoje šossɛ́) n , асфальт (ru) (asfálʹt) m 
• Spanish: asfalto (es) m
• Swahili: lami (sw)
• Swedish: asfalt (sv) c

See also

• asphalt

Verb

tarmac (third-person singular simple present tarmacs, present participle tarmacking, simple past and past participle tarmacked)

1. (UK, Canada) To pave
   • 2008, Valerie Belsey, Exploring Green Lanes in North and North-West Devon^[2], ISBN 1900322218, page 108:

     To your left is a green lane, partly tarmacked with chippings, which leads up to a little car-parking area.

2. (aviation) To spend time idling on a runway, usually waiting for takeoff clearance
   • 1989, Donald F. Wood & James C. Johnson, Contemporary Transportation^[3], ISBN 0024294802, page 213:

     "It is not unusual these days for the time spent tarmacking to exceed the time spent in the air, " said Senator John Danforth, R-Mo.

Alternative forms

• tarmack

Anagrams

• mactra

---

Irish

Etymology

From English tarmac.

Noun

tarmac m

1. tarmac

Declension

Declension of tarmac

Fourth declension

Bare forms (no plural of this noun) Case Singular Nominative tarmac Vocative a tharmac Genitive tarmac Dative tarmac

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Nominative an tarmac Genitive an tarmac Dative leis an tarmac don tarmac

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
tarmac	tharmac	dtarmac
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Synonyms

• tarramhacadam