highway engineer
1
3.2
- noun
- /ˈhaɪweɪ ˌɛnˈdʒɪnɪr/
- Specialized
:
ingeniero de carreteras
- After months of planning, the highway engineers finally started construction on the new highway section.
- highway engineer for roads
Examples
-
Alex Jones reports that state highway engineers ordered the outbound side of Casey Overpass shut down this afternoon when parts of it began crumbling to the ground below.
Blog text (6) -
Beaty said highway engineers are reviewing Legacy as they try to revive the Monroe bypass.
Blog text (1) -
In Minnesota, county highway engineers would have torn those down long ago, replaced them with four $30,000 semaphores at each intersection, widened the street, and torn down every tree for a hundred feet, all in the interest of highway safety.
Fiction book (1998) -
The team of highway engineers designed a new overpass to improve traffic flow in the area.
-
The state hired experienced highway engineers to ensure the project met safety standards.
Synonyms
8
3.4
A person who designs and builds roads, bridges, and harbors for public use
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently compositional: an 'engineer' who works on a 'highway' (a road designed for long-distance travel). This noun–noun compound follows a regular productive pattern in English and similar constructions exist cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner knowing both constituents would readily infer the full meaning.
Etymology
Highway engineer paints a clear picture: an engineer standing on a new highway, looking at plans and marking where to build and fix the road. So, it means 'a person who designs, builds, or looks after roads and highways'.