concreted

1. 1
   adjective

   Covered in concrete, or surrounded by a layer of concrete.

   Like a riverbank cased in stone so the water can't wear it away.

   The concreted channel directs floodwater away from the houses.

   By the time we arrived, the entire courtyard was concreted and ready for use.

   Similarpaved, surfaced

   Oppositeunpaved

   Note

   Often applied to waterways that have been lined and channeled. Jonathan Griffin writes of crossing "the concreted LA River," and Jeff Sparrow describes a creek "reduced to a concreted canal." In that setting the word tends to mark a loss of the natural state. It is gradable too, so a more concreted landscape is one with less open ground left.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of concrete.

   The crew concreted the foundation in a single day.

   Once the posts were concreted into place, the fence stood firm.

   Note

   One spelling does three jobs: the simple past (they concreted the path), the perfect after have (they have concreted it), and the passive after be (the posts were concreted in). The verb is usually transitive, so it normally takes an object or appears in the passive. Beyond building, it can mean making something abstract actual. A plan can be concreted as well as a floor. The passive use shades into the adjective for paved surfaces.

3. 3
   adjectiveobsolete

   Hardened or solidified into a single solid mass.

   Like candle wax that pools, cools, and sets into one solid lump.

   The molten metal cooled until it was wholly concreted in the mold.

   Hereof the common opinion hath been, and ſtill remaineth amongſt us, that Cryſtall is nothing elſe, but Ice or Snow concreted, and by duration of time, congealed beyond liquation.

   1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica

   Note

   An older word for setting hard, with no building material in sight. Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646) reports the belief that crystal is "nothing else, but Ice or Snow concreted," congealed beyond melting. It is the adjective of the archaic verb meaning to coalesce into a solid mass. Modern readers will hear the paving sense instead, so today's writing wants solidified or congealed.

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