bitumen

plural bitumina · plural bitumens

1. countableuncountableAn immensely viscous constituent of petroleum, primarily used in road construction

   You need to excavate and remove the topsoil, line the subsoil with a geotextile, then lay and compact hardcore. Follow this with a layer of compacted "hoggin" – compacted clay, gravel and sand. This is then sprayed with hot bitumen, and has a layer of pea shingle rolled into it.

   2014 August 24, Jeff Howell, “Home improvements: gravel paths and cutting heating bills [print version: Cold comfort in technology, 23 August 2014, p. P5]”, in The Daily Telegraph

   Synonyms: asphalt, bitume, Jew's line, Jew's pitch, Jew's slime, slime

2. broadlycountableuncountableAny one of the natural hydrocarbons.
3. AustraliacolloquialcountableuncountableA road sealed with asphalt concrete, as opposed to a dirt road.
4. CanadacountableuncountableDeposit of extremely heavy crude oil.

present singular third person bitumens · participle present bitumening · participle past bitumened · past bitumened

1. To cover or fill with bitumen.

   another star reflected itself in the glassy black of the bitumened road

   1926, Rudyard Kipling, “The Prophet and the Country”, in Debits and Credits, →OCLC, page 155

   3 more examples

   The Litlata community have now built a mandi set in a pleasant garden, and to ensure the cleanliness of their yardna have bricked and bitumened the pool into which the water flows

   1937, Lady Ethel Stefana Drower, Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, Brill Archive, →LCCN, page 122

   Work is already under way to complete the bitumening of Western Australia's last unsurfaced stretch of Highway One, between Fitzroy Crossing and Hall's Creek.

   1984, Dennis Hancock, Wheels of Progress: History of the Road Transport Industry in Western Australia, 1829-1983, Access Press, →ISBN, page 145

   The development of water reticulation occurred in parallel with street work — forming, kerbing, channelling and bitumening.

   2013, Janice Cooper, Crossing the Divide: A History of Alpha and Jericho Districts, Boolarong Press, →ISBN, page 176

   Synonyms: bituminize