- Home
- Idioms
- pave
pave
pave the way (for someone or something) (with something)
Fig. to prepare the way with something for someone to come or something to happen. (Alludes to paving a road.) I will pave the way for her with an introduction. I am sure I can pave the way for your success. I will pave the way with an introduction.
road to hell is paved with good intentions
Prov. People often mean well but do bad things. (Can be a strong rebuke, implying that the person you are addressing did something bad and his or her good intentions do not matter.) Jane: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings; I only wanted to help you. Jane: Oh, yeah? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
pave the way for somebody/something
to make it possible or easier for someone or something to follow The procedure helped pave the way for successful open heart surgery using the heart-lung machine.
Related vocabulary: lay somebody/something open (to something)pave the way for something
to be a preparation which will make it possible for something to happen in the future Scientists hope that data from this expedition will pave the way for a more detailed exploration of Mars.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
something that you say which means people often intend to do good things but much of the time, they do not make the effort to do those things 'I kept meaning to visit her but I didn't get round to it.' 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.'
pave the way
Make progress or development easier, as in Her findings paved the way for developing a new vaccine. This expression alludes to paving a road so it is easier to travel on. [Late 1500s]
road to hell is paved with good intentions, the
Well-intended acts can have disastrous results, as in She tried to help by defending Dad's position and they haven't spoken since-the road to hell is paved with good intentions . This proverbial idiom probably derives from a similar statement by St. Bernard of Clairvaux about 1150, L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs ("Hell is full of good intentions or wishes"), and has been repeated ever since. [Late 1500s]
pave over
v.1. To cover thoroughly some surface of land with asphalt, concrete, or other hard surface: The contractor paved over the meadow in order to expand the mall's parking lot. The city paved the dirt road over to accommodate more traffic.
2. To willfully ignore or hide some obvious issue or problem: The politician paved over the whole issue of his voting record in his speech. Instead of simply telling us the real story, she tends to pave it over, even if she did nothing wrong.
pave the way
To make progress or development easier: experiments that paved the way for future research.
Common Names:
| Name | Gender | Pronounced | Usage |
|---|
| Merit (2) | | - | Swedish |
| Karolina | | kah-raw-LEE-nah (Polish), kah-ro-LEE-nah (Swedish, German) | Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Hungarian, Slovene, Croatian, Macedonian, Lithuanian, German |
| Zheng | | - | Chinese |
| Applegath | | ['æplgæθ] | |
| MiŁOgost | | mee-WAW-gawst | Polish (Rare) |
| Zakkai | | - | Biblical Hebrew |