concreter

Pluralconcreters

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A tradesperson who places, finishes, and smooths wet concrete on building sites.

   Like a sculptor working clay that will soon set permanently into shape.

   The concreter leveled the slab before the surface began to set.

   Experienced concreters know how to finish a floor before it hardens.

   Note

   Three unrelated words share this spelling, each built on a different part of speech. Here -er attaches to the noun concrete to name the worker, as hatter comes from hat. The same letters also spell the old sugar-boiling apparatus, formed from the verb, and the comparative of the adjective. A concreter plan therefore has nothing to do with the trade.

2. 2
   adjective

   Comparative form of concrete. Rare; more concrete is the usual comparative.

   Note

   The comparative applies only to the senses of concrete that come in degrees: specific rather than general, and tangible rather than abstract. One plan can be concreter than another, but one wall cannot be concreter than another. "Made of concrete" is simply true or false, so it has no comparative. Concreter and the phrase more concrete carry the same meaning.

3. 3
   noundatedcountable

   An apparatus that concentrates sugar syrup by boiling off its water content.

   The refinery's concreter reduced the syrup until it was nearly crystallizing.

   Steam from the concreter filled the boiling house each harvest season.

   Similarevaporator, concentrator

   Note

   A word from the sugar boiling house, now dated. It is formed from the verb concrete, meaning to make something set or thicken into a solid mass, so the apparatus is named for what it does to the syrup. Today most readers will hear the word as the tradesperson. Keep it for historical descriptions of refining, where the setting makes the machine clear.

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