What does "macadamize" mean?

To cover (a road) with macadam (small, broken stones) so as to form a smooth, hard, convex surface.

What is a synonym for "macadamize"?

Common synonyms include: macadam, macadamise, tarmac.

Macadamize

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1
To cover (a road) with macadam (small, broken stones) so as to form a smooth, hard, convex surface.
"Lo there what mix’d conditions run! The orphan lad; the widow’s son; And Fortune’s favour’d care— The wealthy born, for whom she hath Mac-Adamized the future path— The Nabob’s pamper’d heir!"
2
surface with macadam wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

macadam macadamise tarmac

Example

More examples

"Lo there what mix’d conditions run! The orphan lad; the widow’s son; And Fortune’s favour’d care— The wealthy born, for whom she hath Mac-Adamized the future path— The Nabob’s pamper’d heir!"

Etymology

From macadam + -ize, after Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam who pioneered this method of road construction around 1820.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.