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cobblestones

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,122 of 15,258neutral

Cobblestones are rounded stones set into an old road surface. Slippery cobblestones, laid with cobblestones, cobblestones underfoot.

They are rounded because they were river stones, which is what separates them from setts, the squared blocks most people also call cobbles. They are noisy, slippery when wet and last for centuries.

AlMare · Public domain

Definitions of cobblestones

  1. 1nouncobblestonesRounded stones set into an old road surface.B2+

    “Her high heels kept getting stuck between the cobblestones of the old town.”

cobblestones is a stone.

Where it comes from

  1. Middle English

    cobylstone

  2. English

    cobblestone

  3. English, today

    cobblestones

cobblestone comes from Middle English cobylstone, cobyllstone, kobilstane, kobill-stane, equivalent to cobble + stone. Compare Old Norse köppusteinn (“boulder”), Danish kampesten (“boulder”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

cobblestones in the wild

  • During the descents of the Kemmelberg, several riders crashed on the wet cobblestones and were severely injured after a rider swerved to avoid a fallen water bottle.

    2007 Gent–Wevelgem

  • Much of Saint Paul is still paved with cobblestones.

    Saint-Paul Street (Montreal)

  • The cobblestones were laid in a Kasuti pattern to reflect Karnataka's cultural heritage.

    Church Street, Bengaluru

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.