concrete
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɒnkɹiːt/
ipa: /ˈkɒŋkɹiːt/
ipa: /kɵnˈkɹiːt/
ipa: /kɵŋˈkɹiːt/
ipa: /ˌkɑnˈkɹiːt/
ipa: /kɑŋˈkɹiːt/
ipa: /ˈkɑnkɹiːt/
ipa: /ˈkɑŋkɹiːt/
note: Indic
ipa: /kɔn.kriʈ/
note: Indic
ipa: /kɔŋk.riʈ/
rhymes: -iːt
Forms: form: concreter
form: concretest
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin concrētus, past participle of concrescō (to curdle) from con- (with, together) + crescō (to grow, rise).
Senses: examples: text: Fuzzy videotapes and distorted sound recordings are not concrete evidence that Bigfoot exists.
text: Once arrested, I realized that handcuffs are concrete, even if my concept of what is legal wasn't.
text: l am perplexed by the superior importance which Dr, Pratt attributes to abstract trueness over concrete verifiability in an idea, and I wish that he might be moved to explain.
ref: 1909, William James, The Meaning of Truth: A Sequel to 'Pragmatism', London […]: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 173:
text: That fact I think should be leading us to explore again what our tradition has always said, that militarization is not good for us as it is not good for the rest of humanity either, and we ought to be examining what in this generation that means in the toughest, realest, concretest form, what it means for us to be struggling toward.
ref: 1978, Jerry V. Diller, editor, Ancient Roots and Modern Meanings: A Contemporary Reader in Jewish Identity, New York, N.Y.: Bloch Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 244:
text: Professor Peter Crome, chair of the audit's steering group, said the report "provides further concrete evidence that the care of patients with dementia in hospital is in need of a radical shake-up". While a few hospitals had risen to the challenge of improving patients' experiences, many have not, he said. The report recommends that all staff receive basic dementia awareness training, and staffing levels should be maintained to help such patients.
ref: 2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients'”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Apr 2023:
text: The secretary general went on to express his concern with recent Israeli announcements to expand settlements in the occupied lands, urging them to: stop the demolitions of Palestinian homes and confiscation of Palestinian lands, address the humanitarian situation in Gaza and to take concrete steps to improve the daily lives of the Palestinian people. He also noted that all of these behaviours made more difficult the achievement of an Israel-Palestinian peace.
ref: 2016 February 6, James Zogby, “Israel's prickliness blocks the long quest for peace”, in The National, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2022:
text: American intelligence officials have long said privately that Huawei has so-called back doors that could allow the company to obtain data that flows on the networks they build and maintain. But publicly, officials have spoken mostly about the potential that Huawei could provide Chinese officials with access to all kinds of data, without offering concrete proof.
ref: 2020 February 11, Julian E. Barnes, “White House Official Says Huawei Has Secret Back Door to Extract Data”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Jun 2023:
text: Mr. Thaler challenged the decision in federal court, arguing that human authorship is not a concrete legal requirement and allowing AI copyrights would be in line with copyright's purpose as outlined in the U.S. constitution to "promote the progress of science and useful arts."
ref: 2023 August 21, Blake Brittain, “AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted under U.S. law, court rules”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, ON: The Woodbridge Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Aug 2023:
glosses: Real, actual, tangible.
topics: category-theory
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Real, actual, tangible.
Analogous to the categories of algebraic objects which category theory was created to generalize, in the sense of having objects which can be thought of as sets equipped with some additional structure. Formally, equipped with a faithful functor to the category of sets.
raw_tags: of a category
glosses: Real, actual, tangible.
Equipped with a faithful functor to X (called a base category), in which case C is called a concrete category over X.
qualifier: topos theory
raw_tags: of a category C with respect to another category X
examples: text: Concrete Terms, while they expreſs the Quality, do alſo either expreſs, or imply, or refer to ſome Subject to which it belongs; as white, round, long, broad, wiſe, mortal, living, dead.
ref: 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC, part I (Of Perceptions and Ideas), page 58:
text: As expressed in the premiss, the proposition appeals directly and in concrete language to the incapacity of the human imagination for conceiving a minimum.
ref: 1843, John Stuart Mill, “Fallacies of Confusion”, in A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation. […], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC, page 465:
text: He will be occupied during his whole life with a study not of ideas apart from their concrete embodiment, not of things concrete apart from their inward significance, but with a study of expression, — expression as seen in the countenance of external nature, expression in Greek statue, mediæval cathedral, Renaissance altar-piece, expression in the ritual of various religions, and in the visible bearing of various types of manhood, in various exponents of tradition, of thought, and of faith.
ref: 1902 July, Edward Dowden, “Walter Pater”, in The Atlantic, volume 90, number 537, Boston, M.A.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 01 Jan 2023, page 113, column 2:
text: The closer it comes to becoming concrete the more abstract it seems. Things get very abstract. The concrete room was the sum of abstract facts. Are facts abstract, or are they just abstract representations of concrete things?
ref: 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 239:
text: Bologna was a stronghold of medical teaching. The city's famous university, established in 1088, is the oldest in the world. "What they had we call scholastic medicine," Pomata told me. "When we say 'scholastic,' we mean something that is very abstract, not concrete, not empirical."
ref: 2014 April 7, James Wood, quoting Gianna Pomata, “Sergei Dovlatov and the Hearsay of Memory”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Aug 2023:
antonyms: intangible
abstract
glosses: Being or applying to actual things, rather than abstract qualities or categories.
examples: text: While everyone else offered thoughts and prayers, she made a concrete proposal to help.
text: concrete ideas
text: "How did you like my reading of the character, gentlemen?" said Mr. Waldengarver, almost, if not quite, with patronage. ¶ Herbert said from behind (again poking me), "massive and concrete." So I said boldly, as if I had originated it, and must beg to insist upon it, "massive and concrete."
ref: 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 206:
text: "Anyhow, he gives large parties," said Jordan, changing the subject with an urban distaste for the concrete. "And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy."
ref: 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 60:
text: The environments that hemmed in their isolation and the other human beings threatening it were certainly set down in the concretest detail; there is no question of their reality; yet at the center of most of Conrad's novels and stories is the solitary man fighting against what is outside him.
ref: 1954, Walter Allen, The English Novel: A Short Critical History, New York, N.Y.: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., page 370:
text: To German intelligence, Major —— de Coverley was a vexatious enigma; not one of the hundreds of American prisoners would ever supply any concrete information about the elderly white-haired officer with the gnarled and menacing brow and blazing, powerful eyes who seemed to spearhead every important advance so fearlessly and successfully.
ref: 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 133:
text: Nothing is really permanent. But, at the same time, so many things are forever. For me, that's always been something that's hard to grasp, because I'm a very concrete thinker. I want to be like, 'This is how things are, and there's a reason.'
ref: 2022 August 24, Emily Zemler, quoting Soccer Mommy, “Soccer Mommy Searches for Freedom With 'Feel It All the Time' on 'Kimmel'”, in Rolling Stone, New York, N.Y.: Penske Media Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Oct 2022:
text: In his remarks to reporters, Mr Trudeau offered few concrete details but was more willing to make a connection between the downed objects. He said he would discuss the issue further with Mr Biden at a scheduled meeting in March.
ref: 2023 February 13, Abe Asher, “Trudeau suggests link between four shot-down objects despite US playing down connection”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Mar 2023:
synonyms: word: concrete
word: discrete
word: individual
word: particular
word: peculiar
word: proper
word: singular
word: specific
antonyms: word: specific
glosses: Particular, specific, rather than general.
examples: text: The office building had concrete flower boxes out front.
text: Few people passed. The man out of the last house passed on his way home; she heard his footsteps clacking along the concrete pavement and afterwards crunching on the cinder path before the new red houses.
ref: 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Eveline”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 42:
text: I took the stairs down to the communal area and stood resting against a concrete pillar, watching my "brother" kick up little scraps of half-frozen turf.
ref: 2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 46:
text: The video images of him banging on the concrete walls of his cell are wretched. The story of Ivan's plight was covered by everyone from People Magazine to the New York Times, who reported on the "sulking gorilla with matted hair" trapped in his concrete prison.
ref: 2020 August 21, Martin Chilton, “The tragedy of Ivan, the ’shopping mall gorilla’ who drove America wild”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Dec 2021:
glosses: Made of concrete (building material).
examples: text: I cannot wholly expreſs him, I wot not what to call him, but a certain thing altogether made of the hatred of God, of miſtruſt in God, of wings, deceits, diſcord, manſlaughters, and in a word, a thing concrete and heaped up of perjuries, and made of all kind of miſchief.
ref: a. 1556 (date written), Hugh Latimer, The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. […], volume I, London: […] J. Scott, […], published 1758, →OCLC, pages 21–22:
text: The reason why this wisdom so strengthens the wise, even more then many mighty men, so that one wise man more preserves the City then many strong men; it seems to be, because Wisdom both originally and formally, is concrete with power and might: and therefore whatsoever strength can do alone, that also can Wisdom do & more.
ref: 1659, Robert Gell, An Essay Toward the Amendment of the Last English-Translation of the Bible […], page 765:
text: In this sketch Goldsmith undoubtedly shadows forth his an noyances as travelling tutor to this concrete young gentleman, compounded of the pawnbroker, the pettifogger, and the West Indian heir, with an overlaying of the city miser.
ref: 1849, Washington Irving, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, revised edition, Chicago, Ill.: Belford-Clarke Co., →OCLC, page 50:
antonyms: discrete
glosses: Made up of separate parts; composite.
examples: text: Ere the white body they could reach; and stuck, as telling how / They purpos'd to have pierc'd his flesh: his peril pierced now / The eyes of prince Eurypilus, Evemon's famous son; Who came close on, and with his dart struck duke Apisaon, / Whose surname was Phausiades, even to the concrete blood / That makes the liver: on the earth out gush'd his vital flood.
ref: [1611?], Homer, “Book XI”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC, pages 244–245:
text: He [Thales] saw that the breeding of animals is in moisture; that the seeds and kernels of plants (as long as they are productive and fresh), are likewise soft and tender; that metals also melt and become fluid, and are as it were concrete juices of the earth, or rather a kind of mineral waters; […]
ref: a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, edited by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, The Works of Francis Bacon, […], volume V, London: Longman and Co.; […], published 1858, →OCLC, page 469:
text: And therefore by analogy with all other liquors and concretions, the form of the Chaos, whether liquid or concrete, could not be the ſame with that of the preſent Earth, or like it: And conſequently, that form of the firſt or primigenial Earth which riſe immediately out of the Chaos, was not the ſame, nor like to that of the preſent Earth.
ref: 1684, Thomas Burnet, chapter IV, in The Theory Of The Earth: […], Book I, London: […] R. Norton, for Walter Kettilby, […], page 51:
text: The oily baſis of this ammoniacal ſoap, ſeparated by acids, is deſcribed as a concrete ſubſtance, of a greyiſh yellow colour, and ſomewhat more fuſible than wax; combined with fixed or volatile alkali it forms, we are told, a firm ſoap.
ref: 1793 September, “Review of New Publications”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume LXIII, number 3, London: […] John Nichols […], Part II, page 828, column 1:
text: The natives distil a kind of arrack from the flowers, which are also eaten raw. The seeds, too, yield a concrete oil, by expression, used for lamps, and occasionally to fry withal.
ref: c. 1848, J[oseph] D[alton] Hooker, “Extracts from the Private Letters of Dr. J. D. Hooker, written during a Botanical Mission to India”, in William Jackson Hooker, editor, Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany, London: Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, published 1849, →OCLC, page 42:
glosses: Not liquid or fluid; solid.