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Glite Dictionary
🚜 A heavy machine 💪 An unstoppable force 💪 To overpower 🚜 To flatten
steamroller

steamroller

4 4.9
A large vehicle with heavy smooth rollers that flattens roads
  • noun
  • /ˈstiːmˌroʊlər/
translation icon : apisonadora
  • During the roadwork, the steamroller made leveling the surface a quick and easy task.
  • Here is a steamroller

Examples

  • Six steamrollers go around a test track very slowly.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Austin and Vanessa hide behind one of the slowly moving steamrollers.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Here comes the steamroller now.

    Whatever It Takes (2000)

  • Two security guys jump on either side of the steamroller.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • The steamroller is now 8 yards away.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Under her watchful eye, the steamroller moved onto the roadway, impressing the sticky tar mix into a black surface superheated by the sun, leaving tiny fissures ironed and glued together.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The construction crew used the steamroller to compact the new pavement on the road effectively.

  • As the steamroller passed by, it flattened the gravel, preparing the surface for asphalt.

Synonyms

road roller
vssteamroller
  • Specialized
2.9

A heavy vehicle with wide smooth drums that flattens and hardens road surfaces

is the same machine often called by a different name
garden roller
vssteamroller
4.2

A heavy round tool you roll to press and level a lawn

is a larger motorized machine for compacting roads and pavements

Compounds

Russian steamroller
  • Informal
8.7

A powerful, unstoppable force that crushes all resistance

How Big

steamroller
4 4.9
roller
20 2.0
paint roller
1 2.3

Surface Forms

steamroller singular
steamrollers plural

Morphology

steamroller = steam + roller (transparent) = steam + roller

A straightforward compound of 'steam' + 'roller' describing a machine that rolls using steam; meaning is directly inferable.

Etymology

Steamroller comes from the two words steam ('hot gas') and roller ('a heavy wheel that rolls'), because the early machines used steam power and big rollers to press and smooth roads. That's why a steamroller is the vehicle used to compact and level surfaces.