concrete
adjective /ˈkɒŋkriːt 
/
/1Existing in a material or physical form; not abstract: concrete objects like stones...
- He argues that space-time points and regions are concrete, physical objects, and so they are not mathematical.
- A rock is just as physical and more concrete than a human body, but I would not therefore let my body die for the sake of the rock.
- So the novel does not rest with the mere depiction of the locations of violence but meticulously examines its concrete, physical ramifications.
Synonyms
solid, material, real, physical, tangible, touchable, tactile, palpable, visible, existing
1.1Specific; definite: I haven’t got any concrete proof...
- The silence of a king can be charming, but the silence of a prime minister on a definite problem means a concrete position.
- I wish I had a more concrete, definite, positive, upbeat answer to give.
- The Democrat needs to be concrete and specific.
Synonyms
definite, specific, firm, positive, conclusive, definitive;
fixed, decided, set in stone;
factual, actual, real, genuine, substantial, material, tangible;
Latin bona fide
1.2(Of a noun) denoting a material object as opposed to an abstract quality, state, or action.No-one gets warm feelings when they hear about a ‘season’ in the abstract as opposed to a particular concrete holiday....
- While it is obviously false to say that nouns, as a class, designate concrete objects, we should certainly expect a concrete object to be named by a noun.
- He compared grammar with geometry because they both abstracted from concrete instances to provide laws and rules for individual cases.
noun /ˈkɒŋkriːt / [mass noun]
/ [mass noun]A building material made from a mixture of broken stone or gravel, sand, cement, and water, which can be spread or poured into moulds and forms a stone-like mass on hardening: slabs of concrete [as modifier]: concrete blocks...
- The structure was completed in 1937, using steel and mass concrete with sand quarried in Joe Mangan's field.
- Six months on, much of the town is still submerged in broken masonry and fallen concrete.
- The paving - chunks of broken concrete with bands of black river rock set in the mortar between them - feels Spanish.
verb /ˈkɒŋkriːt / [with object]
/ [with object]1Cover (an area) with concrete: the precious English countryside may soon be concreted over...
- Both banks of the river have been concreted over and are covered with houses.
- People living close to the site packed a public meeting last year about the plans, fearing the only remaining green space in the area would end up concreted over.
- Guangdong is the heartland of China's manufacturing boom, a commercial gold-rush region whose paddy fields have been concreted over with industrial parks over the past 20 years.
1.1 [with object and adverbial of place] Fix in position with concrete: the post is concreted into the ground...
- Depending on the make and model of the play structure it may need to be concreted into the ground.
- They struck just days after the benches had been concreted into the ground in Old Station Park, Horwich.
- He also replaced the chestnut paling with a chain link fence supported by steel posts concreted into the ground and covered to 1/3 of its height by wooden boarding.
2kənˈkriːt archaic Form (something) into a mass; solidify: the juices of the plants are concreted upon the surface...
- After standing for thirteen or fourteen hours the sugar concreted into one mass.
- It is the same plastic exudation as that which in some cases becomes concreted into a false membrane.
- I found it strangely concreted into lumps, here and there rolling about in the liquid part.
2.1Make real or concrete instead of abstract: concreting God into actual form of man...
- Ger Foley had so nearly concreted his team's victory with a point in the 54th minute, giving his side a 0-11 to 1-6 lead.
- If Moran's goal provided Castlebar with a foundation for victory, they concreted that likelihood when hitting the first three points after the restart.
- In fact, this principle had already guided the site from it's inception, but it was now explicitly concreted into the site's ethic.
Phrases
be set in concrete
in the concrete
Derivatives
concreteness
/ noun ...- The cinema, as a representational medium, achieves its force through the act of discovering and revealing reality in its concreteness and materiality.
- What he found was a hybrid and rather unsystematic cluster of useful ideas; what he did was give them concreteness and actuality, a local habitation and a name.
- With his usual lack of concreteness, however, he neglects to point out that the most important present challenge to this country comes from the danger of terrorism itself and the priorities it imposes on us.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'solidified'): from French concret or Latin concretus, past participle of concrescere 'grow together'. Early use was also as a grammatical term designating a quality belonging to a substance (usually expressed by an adjective such as white in white paper) as opposed to the quality itself (expressed by an abstract noun such as whiteness); later concrete came to be used to refer to nouns embodying attributes (e.g. fool, hero), as opposed to the attributes themselves (e.g. foolishness, heroism), and this is the basis of the modern use as the opposite of 'abstract'. The noun sense 'building material' dates from the mid 19th century.
cement from Middle English:
This is from Old French ciment from Latin caementum ‘quarry stone’. Cement was originally used for the material added to mortar to make something closer to concrete, a term only used for building material from the mid 19th century, but which was used in other senses from Late Middle English. It comes from Latin concrescere ‘grow together’.