adjective
- constituting an actual thing or instance; real: a concrete proof of his sincerity.
- pertaining to or concerned with realities or actual instances rather than abstractions; particular (opposed to general): concrete ideas.
- representing or applied to an actual substance or thing, as opposed to an abstract quality: The words “cat,” “water,” and “teacher” are concrete, whereas the words “truth,” “excellence,” and “adulthood” are abstract.
- made of concrete: a concrete pavement.
- formed by coalescence of separate particles into a mass; united in a coagulated, condensed, or solid mass or state.
noun
- an artificial, stonelike material used for various structural purposes, made by mixing cement and various aggregates, as sand, pebbles, gravel, or shale, with water and allowing the mixture to harden.Compare reinforced concrete.
- any of various other artificial building or paving materials, as those containing tar.
- a concrete idea or term; a word or notion having an actual or existent thing or instance as its referent.
- a mass formed by coalescence or concretion of particles of matter.
verb (used with object), con·cret·ed, con·cret·ing.
- to treat or lay with concrete: to concrete a sidewalk.
- to form into a mass by coalescence of particles; render solid.
- to make real, tangible, or particular.
verb (used without object), con·cret·ed, con·cret·ing.
- to coalesce into a mass; become solid; harden.
- to use or apply concrete.
Idioms
- set/cast in concrete, to put (something) in final form; finalize so as to prevent change or reversal: The basic agreement sets in concrete certain policies.
noun
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- a construction material made of a mixture of cement, sand, stone, and water that hardens to a stonelike mass
- (as modifier)a concrete slab
- physics a rigid mass formed by the coalescence of separate particles
adjective
- relating to a particular instance or object; specific as opposed to generala concrete example
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- relating to or characteristic of things capable of being perceived by the senses, as opposed to abstractions
- (as noun)the concrete
- formed by the coalescence of particles; condensed; solid
verb
- (tr) to construct in or cover with concrete
- (kənˈkriːt) to become or cause to become solid; coalesce
adj.late 14c., “actual, solid,” from Latin concretus “condensed, hardened, thick, hard, stiff, curdled, congealed, clotted,” figuratively “thick; dim,” literally “grown together;” past participle of concrescere “to grow together,” from com- “together” (see com-) + crescere “to grow” (see crescent). A logicians’ term until meaning began to expand 1600s. Noun sense of “building material made from cement, etc.” is first recorded 1834. adj.
- Relating to an actual, specific thing or instance; particular.
- Existing in reality or in real experience; perceptible by the senses; real.
- Relating to a material thing or group of things as opposed to an abstraction.
- Formed by the coalescence of separate particles or parts into one mass; solid.