road metal

American

noun

British.

broken stone, cinders, etc., used for making roads.

road metal British

noun

crushed rock, broken stone, etc, used to construct a road

"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

Etymology

Origin of road metal

First recorded in 1810–20

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.

I had a medium-brown driveway that used chert road metal from the Meramec River region in Missouri.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 19, 2023

The stones have been taken for road metal, the earth to lay on the land.

From The Geological Story of the Isle of Wight by Hughes, J. Cecil

All headmen and priests concerned in last September's affair worked one month each, supplying road metal from their own houses.

From Stalky & Co. by Kipling, Rudyard

Hornblende gneiss from St Sampson and quartz diorite from Capelles, Corv�e and elsewhere are transported to England for road metal.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 7 "Cerargyrite" to "Charing Cross" by Various

There is no road metal available in Mesopotamia.

From In Mesopotamia by Nicoll, Maurice

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