pave the way

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English

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WOTD – 22 July 2017

Etymology

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From the idea that once a paved path has been laid, travel on the route is easier and smoother for others.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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pave the way (third-person singular simple present paves the way, present participle paving the way, simple past and past participle paved the way)

  1. To make future progress or development easier. [with for]
    Germany's development of rocket weapons paved the way for human controlled spaceflight.
    • 1705, Robert Fleming, “[The Epistle Dedicatory]”, in Christology. A Discourse Concerning Christ: Considered I In Himself, II In His Government, and III In Relation to His Subjects and Their Duty to Him. In Six Books. Being a New Essay towards a farther Revival and Re-introduction of Primitive-Scriptural-Divinity, by way of Specimen, London: Printed for Andrew Bell, and the Bible and Cross-Keys in Cornhill, →OCLC, page ix:
      A perverting of this Firſt and Original Chriſtian Principle, by Political and Aſpiring Church-Guides, […] did not only pave the way for Popery, but both laid the Foundation thereof and finiſh'd its Superſtructure: […]
    • 1876, Henry Southgate, “A Few Things My Wife, when Won, Will Like Me to Observe and Do”, in The Way to Woo and Win a Wife. Illustrated by a Series of Choice Extracts, together with some Original Matter never before Printed, London, Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo, […] 14 King William Street, Strand, →OCLC, page 262:
      The gratification of one inordinate pursuit paves the way for another; and no sooner is the present vain wish indulged, than a future imagined necessity arises, equally importunate.
    • 1972, “Revolution at Floodtide”, in Thomas G[arden] Barnes and Gerald D[onald] Feldman, editors, Nationalism, Industrialization, and Democracy 1815–1914 (A Documentary History of Europe; III), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC; republished Lanham, Md.; London: University Press of America, 1980, →ISBN, page 91:
      Prince Louis Napoleon was president of France, and his dictatorial behaviour was paving the way for his assumption of the imperial crown.
    • 1988, Sue-Ellen Case, “Radical Feminism and Theatre”, in Feminism and Theatre, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 62:
      As we have seen, some of the women active before the feminist movement showed a concern for women's oppression and rights and helped pave the way for the exploration of women's issues in performance.
    • 2013, John Hart, “The Storyboard’s Beginnings”, in The Art of the Storyboard: A Filmmaker’s Introduction, Burlington, Mass., Oxford: Focal Press, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 1:
      The film industry's current use of storyboards as a preproduction, pre-visualization tool owes its humble beginnings to the original Sunday comics. Pioneers like Winsor McKay,[sic – meaning McCay] whose Gertie the Dinosaur […] and animation of the Sinking of the Lusitania (1915) established him as the true originator of the animated cartoon as an art form. He paved the way for [Walt] Disney and others.
    • 2024 May 1, “Network News: Danes plan fully automated trains”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 18:
      Siemens has landed a contract to upgrade signalling on the entire 170km (105-mile) S-Bane suburban network in Copenhagen to pave the way for fully automated trains.

Synonyms

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Translations

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