noun
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a paved surface; pavement
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material used for a pavement, such as paving stones, bricks, or asphalt
adjective
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of or for a paved surface or pavement
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preparatory, facilitating, enabling
paving legislation
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of paving
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at pave, -ing 1
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.
See Examples For:
Wednesday to prepare for paving when water began coming up from the area.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
From a military perspective, tensions have been raised another notch by the deal announced on Wednesday, paving the way for US firms to help Saudi Arabia develop its own domestic civil nuclear power programme.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, was dissolved Friday, paving the way for a vote in late October.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
The lawsuit delayed the roundup, also known as a gather, but in February a U.S. magistrate judge ruled in favor of the government, paving the way for it to move forward.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
“Oh, there’s some talk about paving the streets. But you know Holcomb. Actually, I don’t spend much time there. This is my junior year at K.U.,” she said, meaning the University of Kansas.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
The team visually unified opposite sides of the street with pavings of red brick, which function as a visual bridge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2023
Building works take up a chunk of the stone pavings, where a raging fire in March in the parking lot below has de-stabilized the elegant place.
From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2012
Almost five inches of additional layers including concrete, waterproofing and pavings sat between the slab and the surface that residents walked on, according to a 2020 engineer’s report.
From Washington Post
From early morning the cobbled pavings clattered beneath the feet of multitudes wending their way to St. Peter's Square.
From Time Magazine Archive
As we rattled over the pavings, through the lighted streets, no one spoke.
From Told in a French Garden August, 1914 by Aldrich, Mildred
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
