boul·e·vard

[bool-uh-vahrd, boo-luh-]
noun
1.
a broad avenue in a city, usually having areas at the sides or center for trees, grass, or flowers.
2.
Also called boulevard strip. Upper Midwest. a strip of lawn between a sidewalk and the curb.

Origin:
1765–75; < French, Middle French (orig. Picard, Walloon): rampart, avenue built on the site of a razed rampart < Middle Dutch bol(le)werc; see bulwark


See street.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To boulevard
Collins
World English Dictionary
boulevard (ˈbuːlvɑː, -vɑːd) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  a.  a wide usually tree-lined road in a city, often used as a promenade
 b.  (capital as part of a street name): Sunset Boulevard
2.  chiefly (Canadian)
 a.  a grass strip between the pavement and road
 b.  the strip of ground between the edge of a private property and the road
 c.  the centre strip of a road dividing traffic travelling in different directions
 
[C18: from French, from Middle Dutch bolwercbulwark; so called because originally often built on the ruins of an old rampart]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Boulevard is always a great word to know.
So is slumgullion. Does it mean:
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

boulevard
1769, from Fr. boulevard (15c.), originally "top surface of a military rampart," from a garbled attempt to adopt M.Du. bolwerc "wall of a fortification" (see bulwark) into French, which lacks a -w-. The original notion is of a promenade laid out atop demolished city walls,
which would be much wider than urban streets. Originally in English with conscious echoes of Paris; since 1929, in U.S., used of multi-lane limited-access urban highways. Early French attempts to digest the Dutch word also include boloart, boulever, boloirque, bollvercq.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Example sentences
The original ring was a tree-lined boulevard that traced the path of the city's ancient outer wall.
The pic shows that the boulevard around the corner is a pretty barren wasteland, tree-wise.
Cruise ships dock here regularly, spilling hundreds of tourists onto the main waterfront boulevard.
Sunset boulevard is considered to be the first to employ such extreme cynicism.
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT