Pavement

Origin

Middle English, from Old French pavement, from Latin pavimentum ("a hard surface, a pounded surface"), from pavire ("to beat, to ram, to tread down")

Full definition of pavement

Noun

1. Any paved floor.
• MiltonThe riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold.
2. (chiefly British) A paved footpath, especially at the side of a road.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 14, Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.
3. (US, uncountable) Paved exterior surface, as with a road or sidewalk.
4. The interior flooring, especially when of stone, of large buildings such as a cathedral.

Synonyms

• (footpath) sidewalk US, footpath, footway, platform
• (surface of road) roadway UK, road surface UK; paving

Derived terms

• hit the pavement
• pavement pizza
• pound the pavement