Other forms: paved, paving, paves
To pave is to cover a road or a path with a hard flat surface. Slabs, blocks or tarmac laid over the ground.
The noun paving covers the material and a paving stone is one slab of it. British English says pavement for the walkway beside a road and American English means the road surface itself, which is a real source of confusion. The figurative use is very common, since paving the way for something means preparing for it. There is a proverb about good intentions and the road they pave.
1verbpaveTo cover a surface with a hard flat material.
“They paved the whole yard in reclaimed brick.”
Latin
paviō — to beat, strike, ram, tread down
Vulgar Latin
*pavāre — to beat down, to smash
Old French
paver — to pave, to cover
English, today
pave
From Old French paver (“to pave, to cover”), from Vulgar Latin pavāre (“to beat down, to smash”), from Latin paviō (“to beat, strike, ram, tread down”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA