cement

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See also: Cement and cément

English

WOTD – 17 May 2016
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Workers in Iraq using a cement mixer to make cement (sense 2)
Bags of cement (sense 1) used for building construction in Tunisia
Footprints and graffiti in freshly laid cement (sense 2) in London, United Kingdom

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English syment, cyment, from Old French ciment, from Latin caementum (“quarry stone; stone chips for making mortar”), from caedō (“I cut, hew”). Doublet of cementum.

Pronunciation

Noun

cement (countable and uncountable, plural cements)

  1. (countable, uncountable) A powdered substance produced by firing (calcining) calcium carbonate (limestone) and clay that develops strong cohesive properties when mixed with water. The main ingredient of concrete.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.
  2. (uncountable) The paste-like substance resulting from mixing such a powder with water, or the rock-like substance that forms when it dries.
  3. (uncountable) Any material with strong adhesive and cohesive properties such as binding agents, glues, grout.
  4. (figurative) A bond of union; that which unites firmly, as persons in friendship or in society.
    the cement of our love
  5. (anatomy) The layer of bone investing the root and neck of a tooth; cementum.

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

Verb

cement (third-person singular simple present cements, present participle cementing, simple past and past participle cemented)

  1. (transitive) To affix with cement.
  2. (transitive) To overlay or coat with cement.
    to cement a cellar floor
  3. (transitive, figurative) To unite firmly or closely.
    • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      For they have entertained cause enough
      To draw their swords: but how the fear of us
      May cement their divisions and bind up
      The petty difference, we yet not know.
    • 1840, John Dunlop, The Universal Tendency to Association in Mankind. Analyzed and Illustrated, London: Houlston and Stoneman, page 103:
      Olympic Games. — Besides the ordinary confederacies that join independent states together, a singular federal bond is remarkable in the Olympic games, which for many ages cemented the Grecian commonwealths by a joint tie of recreation and religious ritual.
  4. (figuratively) To make permanent.
    • 1758, David Hume, “Essay XXII. Of Polygamy and Divorces.”, in Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, new edition, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, in the Strand; and A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, at Edinburgh, →OCLC, page 115:
      But friendſhip is a calm and ſedate affection, conducted by reaſon and cemented by habit; ſpringing from long acquaintance and mutual obligations; without jealouſies or fears; and without thoſe feveriſh fits of heat and cold, which cauſe ſuch an agreeable torment in the amorous paſſion.
    • 2016 March 27, Daniel Taylor, “Eric Dier seals England’s stunning comeback against Germany”, in The Guardian‎, London, archived from the original on 22 April 2016:
      [Dele] Alli’s ability to break forward from midfield was a prominent feature and the 19-year-old must have gone a long way to cementing his place in the team.
    • 2024 February 15, Fani Willis, 38:21 from the start, in See Fani Willis' entire defiant testimony in stunning courtroom moment‎, MSNBC, archived from the original on February 16, 2024:
      Me and Mr. Wade, we are good friends. My respect for him has grown over these seven weeks of attacks. We are very good friends. I think but for these attacks, it would have been a friendship that, as life goes, we would have stopped having. I think that you have cemented that we'll be friends to the day we die.

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Czech

Czech Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia cs

Pronunciation

Noun

cement m inan

  1. cement

Declension

Declension of cement (hard masculine inanimate)
singular plural
nominative cement cementy
genitive cementu cementů
dative cementu cementům
accusative cement cementy
vocative cemente cementy
locative cementu, cementě cementech
instrumental cementem cementy

Related terms

Further reading

  • cement in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
  • cement in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Danish

Noun

cement c

  1. cement

Related terms

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch ciment, from Old French ciment, from Latin caementum.

Pronunciation

Noun

cement n (uncountable)

  1. cement (powder, paste)

Derived terms

Descendants

Middle English

Noun

cement

  1. Alternative form of syment

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology

Borrowed from German Zement, from late Middle High German cēment, from earlier zīment, zīmente, from Old French ciment, from Latin caementum.

Pronunciation

Noun

cement m inan

  1. cement (powdered substance)
  2. cement (paste-like substance)

Declension

Declension of cement
singular
nominative cement
genitive cementu
dative cementowi
accusative cement
instrumental cementem
locative cemencie
vocative cemencie

Derived terms

adjectives
noun
verb

Further reading

  • cement in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • cement in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French cément.

Noun

cement n (plural cementuri)

  1. cementum

Declension

Declension of cement
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) cement cementul (niște) cementuri cementurile
genitive/dative (unui) cement cementului (unor) cementuri cementurilor
vocative cementule cementurilor

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Zement, from Latin caementum (“quarry stone; stone chips for making mortar”), from caedo (“I cut, hew”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /t͡sěment/
  • Hyphenation: ce‧ment

Noun

cèment m (Cyrillic spelling цѐмент)

  1. cement

Declension

Declension of cement
singular
nominative cement
genitive cementa
dative cementu
accusative cement
vocative cemente
locative cementu
instrumental cementom

Swedish

Noun

cement c

  1. cement

Declension

Declension of cement 
Uncountable
Indefinite Definite
Nominative cement cementen — —
Genitive cements cementens — —

Related terms

Wikious
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