Definition of "concrete"

l am perplexed by the superior importance which Dr, Pratt attributes to abstract trueness over concrete verifiability in an idea, and I wish that he might be moved to explain.

1909, William James, The Meaning of Truth: A Sequel to 'Pragmatism', London […]: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 173

That fact I think should be leading us to explore again what our tradition has always said, that militarization is not good for us as it is not good for the rest of humanity either, and we ought to be examining what in this generation that means in the toughest, realest, concretest form, what it means for us to be struggling toward.

1978, Jerry V. Diller, editor, Ancient Roots and Modern Meanings: A Contemporary Reader in Jewish Identity, New York, N.Y.: Bloch Publishing Company, page 244

Professor Peter Crome, chair of the audit's steering group, said the report "provides further concrete evidence that the care of patients with dementia in hospital is in need of a radical shake-up". While a few hospitals had risen to the challenge of improving patients' experiences, many have not, he said. The report recommends that all staff receive basic dementia awareness training, and staffing levels should be maintained to help such patients.

2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff ’lack skills to cope with dementia patients’”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, archived from the original on 2023-04-05

The secretary general went on to express his concern with recent Israeli announcements to expand settlements in the occupied lands, urging them to: stop the demolitions of Palestinian homes and confiscation of Palestinian lands, address the humanitarian situation in Gaza and to take concrete steps to improve the daily lives of the Palestinian people. He also noted that all of these behaviours made more difficult the achievement of an Israel-Palestinian peace.

2016 February 6, James Zogby, “Israel's prickliness blocks the long quest for peace”, in The National‎, archived from the original on 2022-01-20

American intelligence officials have long said privately that Huawei has so-called back doors that could allow the company to obtain data that flows on the networks they build and maintain. But publicly, officials have spoken mostly about the potential that Huawei could provide Chinese officials with access to all kinds of data, without offering concrete proof.

2020 February 11, Julian E. Barnes, “White House Official Says Huawei Has Secret Back Door to Extract Data”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, archived from the original on 2023-06-04

Mr. Thaler challenged the decision in federal court, arguing that human authorship is not a concrete legal requirement and allowing AI copyrights would be in line with copyright's purpose as outlined in the U.S. constitution to "promote the progress of science and useful arts."

2023 August 21, Blake Brittain, “AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted under U.S. law, court rules”, in The Globe and Mail‎, Toronto, ON: The Woodbridge Company, archived from the original on 2023-08-23

Concrete Terms, while they expreſs the Quality, do alſo either expreſs, or imply, or refer to ſome Subject to which it belongs; as white, round, long, broad, wiſe, mortal, living, dead.

1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, part I (Of Perceptions and Ideas), page 58

As expressed in the premiss, the proposition appeals directly and in concrete language to the incapacity of the human imagination for conceiving a minimum.

1843, John Stuart Mill, “Fallacies of Confusion”, in A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation. […], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], page 465

He will be occupied during his whole life with a study not of ideas apart from their concrete embodiment, not of things concrete apart from their inward significance, but with a study of expression, — expression as seen in the countenance of external nature, expression in Greek statue, mediæval cathedral, Renaissance altar-piece, expression in the ritual of various religions, and in the visible bearing of various types of manhood, in various exponents of tradition, of thought, and of faith.

1902 July, Edward Dowden, “Walter Pater”, in The Atlantic‎, volume 90, number 537, Boston, M.A., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, archived from the original on 2023-01-01, page 113, column 2

The closer it comes to becoming concrete the more abstract it seems. Things get very abstract. The concrete room was the sum of abstract facts. Are facts abstract, or are they just abstract representations of concrete things?

1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, page 239

Bologna was a stronghold of medical teaching. The city's famous university, established in 1088, is the oldest in the world. "What they had we call scholastic medicine," Pomata told me. "When we say 'scholastic,' we mean something that is very abstract, not concrete, not empirical."

2014 April 7, James Wood, “Sergei Dovlatov and the Hearsay of Memory”, in The New Yorker‎, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, archived from the original on 2023-08-11

"How did you like my reading of the character, gentlemen?" said Mr. Waldengarver, almost, if not quite, with patronage. ¶ Herbert said from behind (again poking me), "massive and concrete." So I said boldly, as if I had originated it, and must beg to insist upon it, "massive and concrete."

1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, page 206

"Anyhow, he gives large parties," said Jordan, changing the subject with an urban distaste for the concrete. "And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy."

1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 60

The environments that hemmed in their isolation and the other human beings threatening it were certainly set down in the concretest detail; there is no question of their reality; yet at the center of most of Conrad's novels and stories is the solitary man fighting against what is outside him.

1954, Walter Allen, The English Novel: A Short Critical History, New York, N.Y.: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., page 370

To German intelligence, Major —— de Coverley was a vexatious enigma; not one of the hundreds of American prisoners would ever supply any concrete information about the elderly white-haired officer with the gnarled and menacing brow and blazing, powerful eyes who seemed to spearhead every important advance so fearlessly and successfully.

1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, page 133

Nothing is really permanent. But, at the same time, so many things are forever. For me, that's always been something that's hard to grasp, because I'm a very concrete thinker. I want to be like, 'This is how things are, and there's a reason.'

2022 August 24, Emily Zemler, quoting Soccer Mommy, “Soccer Mommy Searches for Freedom With ’Feel It All the Time’ on ’Kimmel’”, in Rolling Stone‎, New York, N.Y.: Penske Media Corporation, archived from the original on 2022-10-06

In his remarks to reporters, Mr Trudeau offered few concrete details but was more willing to make a connection between the downed objects. He said he would discuss the issue further with Mr Biden at a scheduled meeting in March.

2023 February 13, Abe Asher, “Trudeau suggests link between four shot-down objects despite US playing down connection”, in The Independent‎, London: Independent Digital News & Media Ltd, archived from the original on 2023-03-20

Few people passed. The man out of the last house passed on his way home; she heard his footsteps clacking along the concrete pavement and afterwards crunching on the cinder path before the new red houses.

1914 June, James Joyce, “Eveline”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, page 42

I took the stairs down to the communal area and stood resting against a concrete pillar, watching my "brother" kick up little scraps of half-frozen turf.

2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, page 46

The video images of him banging on the concrete walls of his cell are wretched. The story of Ivan's plight was covered by everyone from People Magazine to the New York Times, who reported on the "sulking gorilla with matted hair" trapped in his concrete prison.

2020 August 21, Martin Chilton, “The tragedy of Ivan, the ’shopping mall gorilla’ who drove America wild”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph‎, London: Telegraph Media Group, archived from the original on 2021-12-09

I cannot wholly expreſs him, I wot not what to call him, but a certain thing altogether made of the hatred of God, of miſtruſt in God, of wings, deceits, diſcord, manſlaughters, and in a word, a thing concrete and heaped up of perjuries, and made of all kind of miſchief.The spelling has been modernized.

a. 1556 (date written), Hugh Latimer, The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. […], volume I, London: […] J. Scott, […], published 1758, pages 21–22

The reason why this wisdom so strengthens the wise, even more then many mighty men, so that one wise man more preserves the City then many strong men; it seems to be, because Wisdom both originally and formally, is concrete with power and might: and therefore whatsoever strength can do alone, that also can Wisdom do & more.

1659, Robert Gell, An Essay Toward the Amendment of the Last English-Translation of the Bible […], page 765

In this sketch Goldsmith undoubtedly shadows forth his an noyances as travelling tutor to this concrete young gentleman, compounded of the pawnbroker, the pettifogger, and the West Indian heir, with an overlaying of the city miser.

1849, Washington Irving, Life of Oliver Goldsmith, revised edition, Chicago, Ill.: Belford-Clarke Co., page 50

Ere the white body they could reach; and stuck, as telling how / They purpos'd to have pierc'd his flesh: his peril pierced now / The eyes of prince Eurypilus, Evemon's famous son; Who came close on, and with his dart struck duke Apisaon, / Whose surname was Phausiades, even to the concrete blood / That makes the liver: on the earth out gush'd his vital flood.The spelling has been modernized.

, Homer, “Book XI”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter; The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, pages 244–245

He [Thales] saw that the breeding of animals is in moisture; that the seeds and kernels of plants (as long as they are productive and fresh), are likewise soft and tender; that metals also melt and become fluid, and are as it were concrete juices of the earth, or rather a kind of mineral waters; […]

a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, edited by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, The Works of Francis Bacon, […], volume V, London: Longman and Co.; […], published 1858, page 469

And therefore by analogy with all other liquors and concretions, the form of the Chaos, whether liquid or concrete, could not be the ſame with that of the preſent Earth, or like it: And conſequently, that form of the firſt or primigenial Earth which riſe immediately out of the Chaos, was not the ſame, nor like to that of the preſent Earth.

1684, Thomas Burnet, chapter IV, in The Theory Of The Earth: […], Book I, London: […] R. Norton, for Walter Kettilby, […], page 51

The oily baſis of this ammoniacal ſoap, ſeparated by acids, is deſcribed as a concrete ſubſtance, of a greyiſh yellow colour, and ſomewhat more fuſible than wax; combined with fixed or volatile alkali it forms, we are told, a firm ſoap.

1793 September, “Review of New Publications”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume LXIII, number 3, London: […] John Nichols […], Part II, page 828, column 1

The natives distil a kind of arrack from the flowers, which are also eaten raw. The seeds, too, yield a concrete oil, by expression, used for lamps, and occasionally to fry withal.

c. 1848, J[oseph] D[alton] Hooker, “Extracts from the Private Letters of Dr. J. D. Hooker, written during a Botanical Mission to India”, in William Jackson Hooker, editor, Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany, London: Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, published 1849, page 42

Smooth facets of buildings have given way to cobbly insides of concrete blasted apart, all the endless-pebbled rococo just behind the shuttering.

1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, 1st US edition, New York: Viking Press, part 3: In the Zone, page 373

In the next few decades, says Van Oss, building codes will change, opening the way for innovative materials. But while new concretes may be stronger and more durable, they are also more expensive - and whether the tendency of developers and the public to focus on short-term rather than long-term costs will also change is another matter.

2007 August 2, Brandon Keim, “Space-Age Concrete the Answer for Failing Bridges?”, in Wired‎, San Francisco, C.A.: Condé Nast Publications, archived from the original on 2021-06-19

Within hours of the deadly van attack on April 23, 2018, the city installed a series of thigh-high concrete barriers around Union Station and other bustling spots in downtown Toronto.

2022 October 7, Ben Mussett, “'As ugly as ugly can be': Why are there still temporary barriers around Union Station four years later?”, in Toronto Star‎, Toronto, ON: Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., archived from the original on 2023-08-26

Whence follows, that the Abſtract Terms, [Entity] or [Eſſence] do properly ſignify [A Capacity of Being.] Tho' Entity is often us'd as a Concrete for the Thing it ſelf.

1697, J[ohn] S[ergeant], Solid Philosophy Asserted Against the Fancies of the Ideists: […], London: […] Roger Clavil […] Abel Roper […] Thomas Metcalf, […], page 91

Conceptualization is man's method of organizing sensory material. To form a concept, one isolates two or more similar concretes from the rest of one's perceptual field, and integrates them into a single mental unit, symbolized by a word.

1982, Leonard Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels: The End of Freedom in America, New York, N.Y.: Stein and Day/Publishers, page 331

With regard to the physical domain, concretes are as a rule perceived through the senses.

1990, Avi Sion, Future Logic, page 344

However, how can such a structure of concretes and abstracts be made evident, which after all means that knowledge always aims at the concrete, the unprecedented, the irreducibly dissimilar, although cognition always happens in developing similarity through abstraction?

1997, Joseph A. Bracken, Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, editors, Trinity in Process: A Relational Theology of God, New York, N.Y.: Continuum, page 154

On the right-hand sides we have sentences asserting that an equivalence relation holds between concretes—that is, that they are identical in some respect.

2009, Alan Musgrave, “Pleonastic Platonism”, in Heather Dyke, editor, From Truth to Reality: New Essays in Logic and Metaphysics, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, pages 79–80

When Nudger and Claudia were finished eating they drove to the Ted Drewes frozen custard stand on Chippewa and stood in line for a couple of chocolate chip concretes. Drewes's concretes were delicious custard concoctions so thick that before the kids working behind the counter handed them to customers, they turned the cups upside down to demonstrate that the contents wouldn't pour out.

1990, John Lutz, Diamond Eyes, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, page 170

Paradoxically richer and yet lighter than ice cream, frozen custard is softly served, and at Curly's you can have your I vanilla or chocolate flavor custard "concrete" style, with your choice of a rainbow of candy and fruit toppings whipped in.

2013, Jonanna Widner, Dallas & Fort Worth (Moon Handbooks), Berkeley, C.A.: Avalon Travel, page 86

Once there, she opts for a concrete -- Nielsen's thick, spoonable, frozen vanilla custard mixed with add-ins like Oreos or strawberries or chocolate chips and piled into a 16-ounce cup for $4.35. She can't eat it all, of course, which is why a couple of friends need to come along as well.

2003 July 16, Candy Sagon, “Nielsen’s Frozen Custard in Vienna”, in The Washington Post‎, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, archived from the original on 26 August 2023

A concrete has some distinct differences from a milkshake, specifically, the custard base mixture, the final texture, and the mix-ins. Technically, the common ice cream you buy at the store and use in a regular milkshake is made from a custard base. A custard is dairy thickened with the help of heated whole eggs or egg yolks, and a concrete uses a custard base that has a higher ratio of egg yolks in the recipe than the average ice cream.

2023 May 11, Allie Chanthorn Reinmann, “The Difference Between Milkshakes and Concretes (and How to Make Them)”, in Lifehacker‎, archived from the original on 2023-06-08

Most concretes contain about 50 per cent wax, 50 per cent volatile oil, such as jasmine; in rare cases, as with ylang ylang, the concrete is liquid and contains about 80 per cent essential oil, 20 per cent wax. The advantage of concretes is that they are more stable and concentrated than pure essential oils.

1992, Julia Lawless, The Encyclopedia of Essential Oils: A Complete Guide to the Use of Aromatics in Aromatheraapy, Herbalism, Health & Well-Being, Shaftesbury, Dorset, […]: Element, page 37

Monsieur Roca held another concrete under my nose and asked if it reminded me of tea. I breathed in a refreshing green note of verbena, a smell that was so quintessentially English that I felt suddenly nostalgic. It was a daffodil scent; it symbolized spring and the hope that spring always brings. And finally he held out the mimosa concrete for me. As I breathed in its heady aroma I forgot all about the noxious fumes I'd inhaled as I'd walked towards the Robertet factory.

2007, Celia Lyttelton, The Scent Trail: An Olfactory Odyssey, London […]: Bantam Books, page 37

Concretes, the waxy extracts produced by solvent extraction, were first introduced by the house of Roure, Bertrand Fils in Grasse, in 1873, and in 1888 Joseph Robert succeeded in developing a large-scale process for the solvent extraction of fragrant plants. This process was brought into commercial production two years later.

2008, David G. Williams, The Chemistry of Essential Oils: An Introduction for Aromatherapists, Beauticians, Retailers and Students, second edition, Port Washington, N.Y., Weymouth, Dorset: Micelle Press, page 226

Once the material is exhausted, the solvent containing the dissolved essential oil is distilled. This process removes the solvent, leaving behind the extracted matter, which is known as a concrete. The concrete is processed further to produce an absolute for use in perfumery.

2013, Karen Gilbert, Perfume: The Art and Craft of Fragrance, London, New York, N.Y.: CICO Books, page 67

The concrete is made by ingredients which are to remove the feculencies from the cane-juice as soon as expressed from the mill and which check fermentation; indeed juice may be kept for a week after the canes have been gruond, without turning acid, when these ingredients have been used.

1848, The Sugar Question: […], Part II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., page 115

Also molasses in the definition refers only to the product separated from the various sugar concretes specified in the purification of these raw sugars, while in trade terms what is defined under sugar cane syrup in the standards is often called molasses, the term "open kettle molasses" being used in this connection to indicate that the cane juice has been simply boiled down in open kettles.

1910 August 18, Edward W[iley] Duckwall, “Semi-Monthly Report of National Canners' Laboratory”, in The Canner and Dried Fruit Packer, volume XXXI, number 6, Chicago, I.L.: The Canner Publishing Company, page 24

In some areas of the Far East, for example, factories producing sugar concrete may process as little as one ton of sugar cane per day and a total of not over 100 tons of sugar cane per year. From this we go to the other extreme where factories in the West Indies and Mexico process as much as 20,000 tons of sugar cane per day and 2 to 3 million tons of sugar cane per year.

1959, An Industrial Waste Guide to the Cane Sugar Industry, page 1

Maple sugar is crystallized from the concentrated sap of maple. Maple concrete can be purchased and water added to make maple syrup.

1975, Lendal H[enry] Kotschevar, Quantity Food Purchasing, second edition, New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons, page 352

And firſt, if I would now deal rigidly with my Adverſary, I might here make a great Queſtion of the very way of Probation which he and others employ, without the leaſt ſcruple, to evince, that the Bodies commonly cali'd mixt, are made up of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, which they are pleas'd alſo to call Elements; namely that upon the ſuppos'd Analyſis made by the fire, of the former ſort of Concretes, there are wont to emerge Bodies reſembling thoſe which they take for the Elements.

1661, Robert Boyle, “Physiological Considerations Touching the Experiments Wont to be Employed to Evince either the IV Peripatetick Elements, or the III Chymical Principls of Mixt Bodies. Part of the First Dialogue.”, in The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-physical Doubts & Paradoxes, […], London: […] J. Cadwell for J. Crooke, […], page 26

Of this kind, I ſuppoſe, the Æther, that is the medium or fluid body, in which all other bodies do as it were ſwim and move; and particularly, the Air, which ſeems nothing elſe but a kind of tincture or ſolution of terreſtrial and aqueous particles diſſolv'd into it, and agitated by it, juſt as the tincture of Cocheneel is nothing but ſome finer diſſoluble parts of that Concrete lick'd up or diſſolv'd by the fluid water.

1665, R[obert] Hooke, Micrographia: Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses. With Observations and Inquiries thereupon, London: Printed by Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], page 13

But if Gold it ſelf be admitted, as it muſt be, for a porous Concrete, the proportion of Void to Body in the texture of common Air will be ſo much the greater.

1692 November 17, Richard Bentley, A Confutation of Atheism from the Origin and Frame of the World. Part II. […], London: […] H[enry] Mortlock […], published 1693, page 11

Some affirm it [ambergris] to be a true animal concrete, formed in balls in the body of the male ſpermaceti whale, and lodged in a large oval bag over the testicles.

1755 April 15, Samuel Johnson, “A′MBERGRIS”, in A Dictionary of the English Language: […] , volumes I (A–K), London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton; […], column 2

In odd moments David had made an estimate on the cost of shooting down the menace in the eastern tunnel drifting and concreting the gash which would be left by the blasting out of the fissure material.

1919, Francis Lynde, David Vallory, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 322

At first they could not remember anything out of the ordinary, and then the farmer's wife remarked that they had changed the pattern of the milking parlour by concreting the area where the cows were waiting.

1985, Reshad Feild, Here to Heal, Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books, page 84

Frequent catastrophic floods prompted civic leaders in the 1930s to transform the river into a flood-control channel to protect the burgeoning flatlands. Nearly the entire 51-mile river bottom was concreted over, except a few spots where the water table was too high.

2010 August 1, Louis Sahagun, “A journey of discovery on the L.A. River”, in Los Angeles Times‎, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, archived from the original on 2023-07-08

[…] the necessity of recognizing this relation outwardly and of perfecting herself in the forms required to express the recognition, had moved her to such diligence and faithfulness in practicing these forms that this exercise soon concreted itself into habit; it became automatic and unconscious; then a natural result followed: […]

1897, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “[Pudd’nhead Wilson] Chapter”, in The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson: And the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, pages 55–56

Just so economics has concreted the concept of capital. The law needs a term for the material and quasi-material objects of property.

1936, C. Reinold Noyes, The Institution of Property, New York, N.Y., Toronto, Ont., London: Longmans, Green and Co.; Humphrey Milford, page 536

It is only such a logos that can concrete the concrete and make reality real.

1940, Kurt Riezler, Physics and Reality: […], New Haven, C.T.: Yale University Press, page 104

When any ſaline Liquor is evaporated to a Cuticle and let cool, the Salt concretes in regular Figures; which argues, that the Particles of the Salt before they concreted, floated in the Liquor at equal diſtances in rank and file, and by conſequence that they acted upon one another by ſome Power which at equal diſtances is equal, at unequal diſtances unequal.

a. 1728 (date written), Isaac Newton, “, published 1730, page 363

The Blood of ſome Perſons who have dy'd of the Plague could not be made to concrete, by reaſon of the Putrefaction already begun.

1731, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments, and the Choice of Them, According to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies. […], 1st Irish edition, Dublin: […] S. Powell, for George Risk, […], George Ewing, […], and William Smith, […], page 46

At three years old, her mother observed something come from her, as she walked across the room, which, when examined, was found to be fat in a liquid state, which concreted when cold.

1813, Everard Home, “On the Formation of Fat in the Intestines of living Animals”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, London: […] W[illiam] Bulmer and Co. […], page 152

The mastic which concretes on the stem is called mastic in the tear, while that which falls to the earth constitutes common mastic.

1840, Jonathan Pereira, “Pista'cia Lentis'cus, Linn. L. E. D.—The Mastic or Lentisk Tree.”, in The Elements of Materia Medica; […], Part II, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, page 1183