Word: concrete Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Borrowed from Latin concrētus, past participle of concrescō (to curdle) from con- (with, together) + crescō (to grow, rise). Pronunciation: /ˈkɒnkɹiːt/, [ˈkɒŋkɹiːt], [kəŋˈkɹiːt], /ˌkɑnˈkɹit/, [ˌkɑŋˈkɹiːt] 1. A building material created by mixing cement, water, and aggregate such as gravel and sand. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Various types of concrete have been used in the construction of this highway. Example: Smooth facets of buildings have given way to cobbly insides of concrete blasted apart, all the endless-pebbled rococo just behind the shuttering. 2. A building material created by mixing cement, water, and aggregate such as gravel and sand. Labels: countable, especially, uncountable Example: The sidewalk was made of concrete that had been poured in large slabs. Example: Within hours of the deadly van attack on April 23, 2018, the city installed a series of thigh-high concrete barriers around Union Station and other bustling spots in downtown Toronto. 3. A term designating both a quality and the subject in which it exists; a concrete term. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Whence follows, that the Abſtract Terms, [Entity] or [Eſſence] do properly ſignify [A Capacity of Being.] Tho' Entity is often us'd as a Concrete for the Thing it ſelf. Example: Conceptualization is man's method of organizing sensory material. To form a concept, one isolates two or more similar concretes from the rest of one's perceptual field, and integrates them into a single mental unit, symbolized by a word. 4. A dessert of frozen custard with various toppings. Labels: US, countable, uncountable Example: When Nudger and Claudia were finished eating they drove to the Ted Drewes frozen custard stand on Chippewa and stood in line for a couple of chocolate chip concretes. Drewes's concretes were delicious custard concoctions so thick that before the kids working behind the counter handed them to customers, they turned the cups upside down to demonstrate that the contents wouldn't pour out. Example: Paradoxically richer and yet lighter than ice cream, frozen custard is softly served, and at Curly's you can have your I vanilla or chocolate flavor custard "concrete" style, with your choice of a rainbow of candy and fruit toppings whipped in. 5. An extract of herbal materials that has a semi-solid consistency, especially when such materials are partly aromatic. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Most concretes contain about 50 per cent wax, 50 per cent volatile oil, such as jasmine; in rare cases, as with ylang ylang, the concrete is liquid and contains about 80 per cent essential oil, 20 per cent wax. The advantage of concretes is that they are more stable and concentrated than pure essential oils. Example: Monsieur Roca held another concrete under my nose and asked if it reminded me of tea. I breathed in a refreshing green note of verbena, a smell that was so quintessentially English that I felt suddenly nostalgic. It was a daffodil scent; it symbolized spring and the hope that spring always brings. And finally he held out the mimosa concrete for me. As I breathed in its heady aroma I forgot all about the noxious fumes I'd inhaled as I'd walked towards the Robertet factory. 6. Sugar boiled down from cane juice to a solid mass. Labels: countable, obsolete, possibly, uncountable Example: The concrete is made by ingredients which are to remove the feculencies from the cane-juice as soon as expressed from the mill and which check fermentation; indeed juice may be kept for a week after the canes have been gruond, without turning acid, when these ingredients have been used. Example: Also molasses in the definition refers only to the product separated from the various sugar concretes specified in the purification of these raw sugars, while in trade terms what is defined under sugar cane syrup in the standards is often called molasses, the term "open kettle molasses" being used in this connection to indicate that the cane juice has been simply boiled down in open kettles. 7. Any solid mass formed by the coalescence of separate particles; a compound substance, a concretion. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: And firſt, if I would now deal rigidly with my Adverſary, I might here make a great Queſtion of the very way of Probation which he and others employ, without the leaſt ſcruple, to evince, that the Bodies commonly cali'd mixt, are made up of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, which they are pleas'd alſo to call Elements; namely that upon the ſuppos'd Analyſis made by the fire, of the former ſort of Concretes, there are wont to emerge Bodies reſembling thoſe which they take for the Elements. Example: Of this kind, I ſuppoſe, the Æther, that is the medium or fluid body, in which all other bodies do as it were ſwim and move; and particularly, the Air, which ſeems nothing elſe but a kind of tincture or ſolution of terreſtrial and aqueous particles diſſolv'd into it, and agitated by it, juſt as the tincture of Cocheneel is nothing but ſome finer diſſoluble parts of that Concrete lick'd up or diſſolv'd by the fluid water.