macadam

See also: Macadam and MacAdam

English

Etymology

Named after John Loudon McAdam, who invented the process of macadamization. Used for describing road surfaces originally constructed using the McAdam method, but now sometimes used for any road or street.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məˈkædəm/

Noun

macadam (countable and uncountable, plural macadams)

1. (uncountable) The surface of a road consisting of layers of crushed stone (usually tar-coated for modern traffic).
2. (US, dated, countable) Any road or street.

Related terms

• (materials) asphalt, brick, cobbles, gravel, tar
• (features and construction techniques) crown, crowning, dusting, paving, rolled, subgrade
• (equipment and tools) bulldozer, dump truck, grader, pan, roller, sheepfooter, steamroller
• (road surface types) cobblestone, dirt, gravel, hardtop, tarmac, tarmacadam
• (vias) highway, road, street

Translations

surface of a road

• Czech: makadam (cs) m
• Finnish: sepeli (fi), murske (fi)
• German: Makadam (de) m, n
• Hungarian: makadám
• Russian: ще́бень (ru) m (ščébenʹ)

• Scottish Gaelic: bìth f, teàrr f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: макадам m

  Roman: makadam (sh) m

Verb

macadam (third-person singular simple present macadams, present participle macadaming or macadamming, simple past and past participle macadamed or macadammed)

1. (transitive) To cover or surface with macadam.

See also

• asphalt
• Wikipedia article on macadam