asphalt

• asphalte

From Late Latin asphaltum, from Ancient Greek ἄσφαλτος (ásphaltos, “asphalt, bitumen”).^[1] Displaced native Old English eorþteoru.

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈæʃfɑlt/, /ˈæsfɑlt/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈæʃfɔlt/, /ˈæsfɔlt/, /ˈæʃfɛlt/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæsfælt/, /ˈæsfəlt/, /ˈæsfɔːlt/, /ˈæsfɒlt/, /ˈæʃ-/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæsfɔlt/, /ˈæʃfɔlt/, /ˈæsfɑlt/

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asphalt (countable and uncountable, plural asphalts)

2. A sticky, black to brown and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid, composed almost entirely of bitumen with small mineral particles, that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits.

   Synonym: bitumen

   The mining of asphalt was big business in this area in the early twentieth century.

   • 1914, Thomas Hugh Boorman, Asphalts, their sources and utilizations, →OCLC, page 9:

     Felltham wrote in the beginning of the 17th century of the “Bitumated walls of Babylon;” the source of its supply, the fountains of Is, on a tributary of the Euphrates, still yields asphalt.

4. Ellipsis of asphalt concrete, a hard ground covering used for roads and walkways.

   Near-synonyms: tarmac, tarmacadam, blacktop, bitumen

   Please hose off the asphalt near the top of the driveway if the trucks get lots of mud on it.

   • 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 214:

     Between the grey mist of rainclouds the sun suddenly appeared to mottle the wet asphalt of Marble Arch in patches of silver and ebony.

asphalt (third-person singular simple present asphalts, present participle asphalting, simple past and past participle asphalted)

1. (transitive) To pave with asphalt.

• asphalt on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• spathal, taplash