macadamize

English

Alternative forms

• macadamise, McAdamise, McAdamize

Etymology

After Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam who pioneered this method of road construction around 1820.

Verb

macadamize (third-person singular simple present macadamizes, present participle macadamizing, simple past and past participle macadamized)

1. To cover (a road) with macadam (small, broken stones) so as to form a smooth, hard, convex surface.

   Synonym: macadam

   • 1824 April 10, Thomas Hood, “Ode on a distant Prospect of Clapham Academy”, in New Monthly Magazine‎^[1], archived from the original on 19 July 2016, pages 355–357:

     Lo there what mix’d conditions run!
     The orphan lad; the widow’s son;
     And Fortune’s favour’d care—
     The wealthy born, for whom she hath
     Mac-Adamized the future path—
     The Nabob’s pamper’d heir!

   • 1860, Review of Erastus C. Benedict, A Run Through Europe, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Volume 21, p. 546,^[2]

     He pointed to the macadamized streets about that great hospital, and said, “The managers applied to the Emperor to macadamize the streets, to prevent the noise, and he did it. He does all that is asked of him.” Some say, however, that the Emperor is so ready to macadamize, because paving stones are so convenient in revolutionary barricades.

   • 1900, Aylmer Maude (translator), The Slavery of Our Times by Leo Tolstoy, Maldon, Essex: The Free Age Press, Chapter 6, p. 55,^[3]

     But even if a means could be found to get all to agree to produce certain articles (though there is no such means, and can be none, except coercion), who, in a free society, without capitalistic production, competition and its law of supply and demand, will decide which articles are to have the preference? Which are to be made first, and which after? Are we first to build the Siberian railway and fortify Port-Arthur, and then macadamise the roads in our country districts, or vice versâ?

   • 2016 July 8, Ezabir Ali, “Gwalta: On the Line of Hostility”, in Greater Kashmir:

     Though the village has recently got a macadamized road under Prime Ministers Gram Sadak Yojna Scheme and regular bus service has now been provided, there are a number of women who have lost their lives due to not receiving medical aid or help during pregnancy and child birth.

Related terms

• macadamization

 

Translations

Translations

• Portuguese: macadamizar

References

• “macadamize”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Portuguese

Verb

macadamize

1. inflection of macadamizar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative