Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - concrete

(concretes, concreting, concreted) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Concrete is a substance used for building which is made by mixing together cement, sand, small stones, and water. The posts have to be set in concrete... They had lain on sleeping bags on the concrete floor. N-UNCOUNT: oft N n 2. When you concrete something such as a path, you cover it with concrete. He merely cleared and concreted the floors. VERB: V n 3. You use concrete to indicate that something is definite and specific. He had no concrete evidence... I must have something to tell him. Something concrete. ADJ: usu ADJ n • concretely ...by way of making their point more concretely. ADV: oft ADV with cl 4. A concrete object is a real, physical object. ...using concrete objects to teach addition and subtraction. ADJ: usu ADJ n 5. A concrete noun is a noun that refers to a physical object rather than to a quality or idea. ? abstract ADJ: ADJ n 6. If a plan or idea is set in concrete or embedded in concrete, it is fixed and cannot be changed. As Mr Blunkett emphasised, nothing is yet set in concrete. PHRASE: v-link PHR CONCRETE JUNGLE (concrete jungles) If you refer to a city or area as a concrete jungle, you mean that it has a lot of modern buildings and you think it is ugly or unpleasant to live in. N-COUNT c darkgreen]disapproval