What does concreted mean?
'Concreted' is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'to concrete', which means to cover, pave, or fill a surface with concrete — the ubiquitous building material made from cement, sand, gravel, and water. It appears most often in practical contexts of construction, landscaping, and home improvement: driveways are concreted, gardens are concreted over, floors are concreted. By extension it can describe any material that has hardened into a solid mass, and, more rarely, it carries a figurative force meaning that something has been made definite or tangible. The word derives ultimately from the Latin 'concrescere', meaning 'to grow together', which also underlies the noun and adjective 'concrete' and related terms such as 'concretion' and 'concretize'. While 'concrete' as a noun and adjective dominates everyday usage, 'concreted' remains a useful and precise term whenever the act of applying or solidifying the material needs describing.
verbPast tense and past participle of the verb 'concrete': to cover, pave, or fill with concrete, or more generally to make something hard, solid, or real.
- Covered or paved with concrete (literal construction sense).
- Made hard, solid, or physically set.
- (Figurative, rare) Made definite, tangible, or real.
"The workers concreted the driveway in a single afternoon."
"They concreted over the old garden to create a parking area."
"Once the mixture had concreted overnight, the mould could safely be removed."
The same Latin root that gave us 'concrete' also gave us 'grow' — because 'crescere' literally means to grow, so concrete is etymologically 'grown together'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of concreted
'Concreted' comes from the English verb 'concrete', which derives from the Latin 'concrescere', meaning 'to grow together' or 'to harden', formed from 'con-' ('together') and 'crescere' ('to grow'). The adjective entered English in the late Middle Ages via French, while the verb use referring to covering surfaces with the building material developed later alongside the modern material itself. Cognates sharing the same Latin root include 'concretion', 'concretize', and 'excrete'/'secretion' through the shared stem 'crescere'.
Related word forms
How concreted is actually used
Mostly used in literal construction and DIY contexts; the figurative sense of making an idea concrete is far more commonly expressed with the adjective 'concrete' than with this past-tense verb form. The verb itself is relatively uncommon compared to its noun and adjective counterparts.
Easily confused with concreted
'Concerted' means jointly arranged or coordinated (as in 'a concerted effort'), while 'concreted' refers to having been covered or made firm with concrete.