English

Proper noun

Cement

1. A town in Oklahoma.

English

Workers in Iraq using a cement mixer to make cement (sense 2)

Bags of cement (sense 1) used for building construction in Tunisia

Footprints and graffiti in freshly laid cement (sense 2) in London, United Kingdom

Alternative forms

• cæment (archaic)

Noun

cement ‎(countable and uncountable, plural cements)

1. (countable, uncountable) A powdered substance that develops strong adhesive properties when mixed with water.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp, London; New York, NY.: Cassell, OCLC 4293073, OL 1097634W:

     In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.

2. (uncountable) The paste-like substance resulting from mixing such a powder with water, or the rock-like substance that forms when it dries.
3. (uncountable) Any material with strong adhesive properties.
4. (figuratively) A bond of union; that which unites firmly, as persons in friendship or in society.

   the cement of our love‎

5. (anatomy) The layer of bone investing the root and neck of a tooth; cementum.

Derived terms

• Keene's cement
• masonry cement
• Portland cement

Translations

See also

• concrete

Verb

cement ‎(third-person singular simple present cements, present participle cementing, simple past and past participle cemented)

1. (transitive) To affix with cement.
2. (transitive) To overlay or coat with cement.

   to cement a cellar floor‎

3. (transitive, figuratively) To unite firmly or closely.
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 1,

     For they have entertained cause enough

     To draw their swords: but how the fear of us

     May cement their divisions and bind up

     The petty difference, we yet not know.

   • 1840, John Dunlop, The Universal Tendency to Association in Mankind. Analyzed and Illustrated, London: Houlston and Stoneman, page 103:

     Olympic Games. — Besides the ordinary confederacies that join independent states together, a singular federal bond is remarkable in the Olympic games, which for many ages cemented the Grecian commonwealths by a joint tie of recreation and religious ritual.

4. (figuratively) To make permanent.
   • 1758, David Hume, “Essay XXII. Of Polygamy and Divorces.”, in Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, new edition, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, in the Strand; and A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, at Edinburgh, OCLC 912916757, page 115:

     But friendſhip is a calm and ſedate affection, conducted by reaſon and cemented by habit; ſpringing from long acquaintance and mutual obligations; without jealouſies or fears; and without thoſe feveriſh fits of heat and cold, which cauſe ſuch an agreeable torment in the amorous paſſion.

   • 2016 March 27, Daniel Taylor, “Eric Dier seals England’s stunning comeback against Germany”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 22 April 2016:

     [Dele] Alli’s ability to break forward from midfield was a prominent feature and the 19-year-old must have gone a long way to cementing his place in the team.

Translations

Czech

Noun

cement m

1. cement

Polish

Pronunciation

Noun

cement m inan

1. cement

Declension

Derived terms

• cementowy
• cementować

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowing from German Zement, from Latin caementum ‎(“quarry stone; stone chips for making mortar”), from caedo ‎(“I cut, hew”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsěment/
• Hyphenation: ce‧ment

Noun

cèment m ‎(Cyrillic spelling цѐмент)

1. cement

Declension

Swedish

Noun

cement c

1. cement

Declension

Related terms

• cementblandare