Dictionary

roadmaker en · NOUN

Etymology

From road + maker.

Meanings

1. Someone who or something that builds roads.
   • Hannibal was a roadmaker, Cromwell was a roadmaker, Napoleon was a roadmaker. 1912, Andrew Broder, “Address”, in Sessional Papers of the Ontario Legislative Assembly, volume 44, number 5, page 10:
   • "Thank you for the compliment, your Reverence," he replied, construing the delicate innuendo in a favourable sense' "sure every one, high and low, knows Andy Spain, the roadmaker, after his forty years on the highway, since I was a gossoon helpin' my father, who was a roadmaker before me. Bedad, I am a well-known character, and no mistake." 1912, Joseph Guinan, The Curate of Kilcloon, page 90:
   • In France every freight and market wagon is a roadmaker. 1901, Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor on the Canals of New York, page 129:
   • The really acute roadmaker will be as shy of having clay in the interstices of his stone work as the vigilant mason is of having clay in a brick or stone wall. 1891, Lewis Muhlenberg Haupt, A Move for Better Roads, page 115:
   • The roadmaker has his dreams and visions as well as the poet, and he expresses them in broken stones. 1918, Thomas Tiplady, The Soul of the Soldier: Sketches from the Western Battlefront, page 30:
2. (figuratively) An innovator; a trailblazer; a pioneer.
   • Who have been the roadmakers? The men and women who, by their intellect or character or example ... have prepared the way for human progress. They are the pioneers. 1925, The Scottish Educational Journal - Volume 8, page 41:
   • In what way and to what extent may Gresham be looked upon as a roadmaker? 1925, Frank Reyner Salter, Sir Thomas Gresham (1518-1579), page 166:
   • Among other troublesome questions, it is difficult to make up your mind exactly what can be the qualities which distinguish a "roadmaker" from an ordinary writer. Would you call Shelley a '"roadmaker," " or Donne? 1927, “Reviews: Thomas Carlyle, by Mary Agnes Hamilton”, in Education Outlook, volume 79, page 297:

Forms