pave the way

present singular third person paves the way · participle present paving the way · participle past paved the way · past paved the way

1. idiomaticTo make future progress or development easier.

   Germany's development of rocket weapons paved the way for human controlled spaceflight.

   5 more examples

   A perverting of this Firſt and Original Chriſtian Principle, by Political and Aſpiring Church-Guides, […] did not only pave the way for Popery, but both laid the Foundation thereof and finiſh'd its Superſtructure: […]

   1705, Robert Fleming, “[The Epistle Dedicatory]”, in Christology. A Discourse Concerning Christ: Considered I In Himself, II In His Government, and III In Relation to His Subjects and Their Duty to Him. In Six Books. Being a New Essay towards a farther Revival and Re-introduction of Primitive-Scriptural-Divinity, by way of Specimen, London: Printed for Andrew Bell, and the Bible and Cross-Keys in Cornhill, →OCLC, page ix

   The gratification of one inordinate pursuit paves the way for another; and no sooner is the present vain wish indulged, than a future imagined necessity arises, equally importunate.

   1876, Henry Southgate, “A Few Things My Wife, when Won, Will Like Me to Observe and Do”, in The Way to Woo and Win a Wife. Illustrated by a Series of Choice Extracts, together with some Original Matter never before Printed, London; Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo, […] 14 King William Street, Strand, →OCLC, page 262

   Prince Louis Napoleon was president of France, and his dictatorial behaviour was paving the way for his assumption of the imperial crown.

   1972, “Revolution at Floodtide”, in Thomas G[arden] Barnes and Gerald D[onald] Feldman, editors, Nationalism, Industrialization, and Democracy 1815–1914 (A Documentary History of Europe; III), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC; republished Lanham, Md.; London: University Press of America, 1980, page 91

   As we have seen, some of the women active before the feminist movement showed a concern for women's oppression and rights and helped pave the way for the exploration of women's issues in performance.

   1988, Sue-Ellen Case, “Radical Feminism and Theatre”, in Feminism and Theatre, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 62

   The film industry's current use of storyboards as a preproduction, pre-visualization tool owes its humble beginnings to the original Sunday comics. Pioneers like Winsor McKay,^([sic – meaning McCay]) whose Gertie the Dinosaur […] and animation of the Sinking of the Lusitania (1915) established him as the true originator of the animated cartoon as an art form. He paved the way for [Walt] Disney and others.

   2013, John Hart, “The Storyboard’s Beginnings”, in The Art of the Storyboard: A Filmmaker’s Introduction, Burlington, Mass.; Oxford: Focal Press, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 1

   Synonyms: grease the wheels, set the stage, prepare the ground