Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
[ad_1] noun
- any of various dark-colored, solid, bituminous substances, native in various areas of the earth and composed mainly of hydrocarbon mixtures.
- a similar substance that is the by-product of petroleum-cracking operations.
- a mixture of such substances with gravel, crushed rock, or the like, used for paving.
verb (used with object)
- to cover or pave with asphalt.
adjective
- of, relating to, or containing asphalt: asphalt tile.
noun
- any of several black semisolid substances composed of bitumen and inert mineral matter. They occur naturally in parts of America and as a residue from petroleum distillation: used as a waterproofing material and in paints, dielectrics, and fungicides
- a mixture of this substance with gravel, used in road-surfacing and roofing materials
- (modifier) containing or surfaced with asphalt
verb
- (tr) to cover with asphalt
early 14c., “hard, resinous mineral pitch found originally in Biblical lands,” from Late Latin asphaltum, from Greek asphaltos “asphalt, bitumen,” probably from a non-Greek source, possibly Semitic [Klein, citing Lewy, 1895]. Another theory holds it to be from Greek a- “not” + *sphaltos “able to be thrown down,” taken as verbal adjective of sphallein “to throw down,” in reference to a use of the material in building.
Meaning “paving composition” dates from 1847 and its popular use in this sense established the modern form of the English word, mostly displacing asphaltum, asphaltos. As a verb meaning “to cover with asphalt,” from 1872.
- A thick, sticky, dark-brown mixture of petroleum tars used in paving, roofing, and waterproofing. Asphalt is produced as a byproduct in refining petroleum or is found in natural beds.