blacktop

English

Alternative forms

• black top, black-top

Etymology

From black +‎ top.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblæktɒp/

Noun

blacktop (countable and uncountable, plural blacktops)

1. (US, uncountable) Asphalt concrete or similar bituminous black paving material used for the surface of roads (e.g., tarmacadam, tarmac). [from 20th c.]
   • 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 284:

     Then I was around the hill on the blacktop and in another country.

2. (US, countable) A road so paved.
3. (US, countable) A paved area on a schoolground reserved for recess activities, often doubling as a parking lot.
   • 2008, Terrence E. Deal, Ted Purinton, Daria Cook Waetjen, Making Sense of Social Networks in Schools‎^[1], Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press and the American Association of School Administrators, →ISBN, page 64:

     At one time, students were able to play basketball on the blacktop behind the school building, and teachers were also able to park on campus. Now, teachers park on the streets, and there is no place for students to let off steam with casual, non-organized sports before or after school.

   • 2020, Soo Hong, Natural Allies: Hope and Possibility in Teacher-Family Partnerships‎^[2], Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Education Press, →ISBN:

     From the dismissive receptionist in the main office to the lines on the school blacktop for dropping off and picking up children, schools often make parents feel that they must justify their presence.

Hypernyms

• (paved area on a schoolground): schoolyard (UK)

Translations

bituminous black paving material

• Polish: bitum m

Verb

blacktop (third-person singular simple present blacktops, present participle blacktopping, simple past and past participle blacktopped)

1. (US) To pave with blacktop. [from 20th c.]

   The county first blacktopped that road decades ago