hard shoulder

British

noun

a surfaced verge running along the edge of a motorway for emergency stops

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"We were already parked in a really dangerous place as there was no hard shoulder."

From BBC

Tregonning told officers he used the hard shoulder because "at the that time I believed that was an emergency for me".

From BBC

He pulled on to the hard shoulder and ran towards screams coming from the Toyota.

From BBC

The court heard that he went on to the hard shoulder before making a sudden U-turn and into lane three, heading south.

From BBC

Ten minutes later, however, a young man in a white van pulled up behind them on the hard shoulder.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023