From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcementce‧ment1 /sɪˈment/ ●○○ noun [uncountable] 1 TBCa grey powder made from lime and clay that becomes hard when it is mixed with water and allowed to dry, and that is used in building → concrete a bag of cement2 DHa thick sticky substance that becomes very hard when it dries and is used for filling holes or sticking things together
Examples from the Corpus
cement• a cement wall• His bare feet scraping on the gritty cement pavement made such an unpleasant sound that Fakhru decided not to follow too closely.• Two bags of cement were parked behind the fence, and a stepladder there, leading to the top.• Every major site needs a constant supply of this slurry of cement, stones, gravel, and water.• Studies of cement sequences must pay particular attention to veining phases.• Or spitting in the dust and rubbing the resultant cement upon blind eyes.• Literary Arabic has always been the cement of Islam.• I wanted to grab my head and shake the cement out of it.• Some researchers are pursuing studies in soil stabilisation using cement, lime and bitumen.• His backup was cement, and he knew exactly what profit margin to expect on it.cementcement2 verb [transitive] 1 (also cement over)TBC to cover something with cement2 RELATIONSHIPto make a relationship between people, countries, or organizations firm and strongcement a relationship/alliance They want to cement a good working relationship between the government and trade unions.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
cement• Back then many a congressional friendship was cemented by an exchange of votes.• It took those games to cement his decision on a basketball coach.• The consummate aerospace industry outsider has finally cemented his place in the fraternity.• Steven's marriage to Lucy Brett cemented important business ties with her family.• Second, he hopes to use blocks of Uralmash shares to cement joint-venture agreements with foreign partners.• Some of the graves are cemented over.• To cement the alliance with Lombardy, Charles married Desiderata, the daughter of Desiderius.• I couldn't believe it when I saw it cos we had just cemented the ill-fated Admiral deal.• Having a consistent picture and an affirming statement really cements the new behavior in my mind.• Cusack has an idea that perhaps we can come up with an additional line to cement the scene.cement a relationship/alliance• This does much to encourage a client to be confident of your ability and to cement relationships.Origin cement1 (1300-1400) Old French ciment, from Latin caementum “small pieces of stone used in making mortar”, from caedere “to cut” 