Library / English Dictionary

CEMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A specialized bony substance covering the root of a tooth

Synonyms:

cement; cementum

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("cement" is a kind of...):

solid body substance (the solid parts of the body)

Holonyms ("cement" is a part of...):

root (the embedded part of a bodily structure such as a tooth, nail, or hair)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something that hardens to act as adhesive material

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("cement" is a kind of...):

adhesive; adhesive agent; adhesive material (a substance that unites or bonds surfaces together)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cement"):

glue; gum; mucilage (cement consisting of a sticky substance that is used as an adhesive)

putty (a dough-like mixture of whiting and boiled linseed oil; used especially to patch woodwork or secure panes of glass)

iron putty (a cement resembling putty; made by mixing ferric oxide and boiled linseed oil; is acid resistant)

red-lead putty (a cement resembling putty; made by mixing white and red lead in boiled linseed oil; used as luting on pipe fittings)

mastic (a pasty cement used as an adhesive or filler)

Derivation:

cementitious (like or relevant to or having the properties of cement)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A building material that is a powder made of a mixture of calcined limestone and clay; used with water and sand or gravel to make concrete and mortar

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("cement" is a kind of...):

building material (material used for constructing buildings)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cement"):

hydraulic cement; Portland cement (a cement that hardens under water; made by heating limestone and clay in a kiln and pulverizing the result)

Holonyms ("cement" is a substance of...):

concrete (a strong hard building material composed of sand and gravel and cement and water)

mortar (used as a bond in masonry or for covering a wall)

Derivation:

cement (bind or join with or as if with cement)

cement (cover or coat with cement)

cementitious (like or relevant to or having the properties of cement)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Concrete pavement is sometimes referred to as cement

Example:

they stood on the grey cement beside the pool

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("cement" is a kind of...):

concrete (a strong hard building material composed of sand and gravel and cement and water)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Any of various materials used by dentists to fill cavities in teeth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("cement" is a kind of...):

fill; filling (any material that fills a space or container)

Derivation:

cement (bind or join with or as if with cement)

cement (cover or coat with cement)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make fast as if with cement

Example:

We cemented our friendship

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "cement" is one way to...):

bind (make fast; tie or secure, with or as if with a rope)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Bind or join with or as if with cement

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "cement" is one way to...):

fasten; fix; secure (cause to be firmly attached)

Verb group:

cement (cover or coat with cement)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

cement (a building material that is a powder made of a mixture of calcined limestone and clay; used with water and sand or gravel to make concrete and mortar)

cement (any of various materials used by dentists to fill cavities in teeth)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cover or coat with cement

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "cement" is one way to...):

coat; surface (put a coat on; cover the surface of; furnish with a surface)

Verb group:

cement (bind or join with or as if with cement)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

cement (a building material that is a powder made of a mixture of calcined limestone and clay; used with water and sand or gravel to make concrete and mortar)

cement (any of various materials used by dentists to fill cavities in teeth)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The deposits are exposed in cross section as relatively pure water ice, capped by a layer one to two yards (or meters) thick of ice-cemented rock and dust.

(Steep Slopes on Mars Reveal Structure of Buried Ice, NASA)

Then there was the pumping plant for the artesian well, and the big cement tank where Judge Miller’s boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the hot afternoon.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

For their study, the Sri Lankan research team built a set of identical walls from materials commonly used to build homes in the tropics, including brick, cement blocks, mud bricks and Cabook – bricks made from laterite soil.

(Smoother walls healthier for lungs, SciDev.Net)

The setting sun shone full upon the passage floor, and I could see that the old, foot-worn grey stones with which it was paved were firmly cemented together, and had certainly not been moved for many a long year.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Some of the dark sandstone in an area being explored by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows texture and inclined bedding structures characteristic of deposits that formed as sand dunes, then were cemented into rock.

(Mars Panorama from Curiosity Shows Petrified Sand Dunes, NASA)

Now a bag of remarkable clothespins, next, a wonderful nutmeg grater which fell to pieces at the first trial, a knife cleaner that spoiled all the knives, or a sweeper that picked the nap neatly off the carpet and left the dirt, labor-saving soap that took the skin off one's hands, infallible cements which stuck firmly to nothing but the fingers of the deluded buyer, and every kind of tinware, from a toy savings bank for odd pennies, to a wonderful boiler which would wash articles in its own steam with every prospect of exploding in the process.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Sometimes he thought of Judge Miller’s big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley, and of the cement swimming-tank, and Ysabel, the Mexican hairless, and Toots, the Japanese pug; but oftener he remembered the man in the red sweater, the death of Curly, the great fight with Spitz, and the good things he had eaten or would like to eat.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

"Oh, sure," agreed Wilson hurriedly and went toward the little office, mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity—except his wife, who moved close to Tom.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)