Dictionary Definition
driveway n : a road leading up to a private
house; "they parked in the driveway" [syn: drive, private
road]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Extensive Definition
A driveway is a type of private road for local
access to one or a small group of structures, and is owned and
maintained by an individual or group.
Driveways do not usually have traffic
lights. However, at a few driveways to commercial businesses
and parks in which there is more traffic than a "Private Drive",
there is an exception.
Driveways can be decorative in ways that public
roads can not, due to their lighter traffic or the willingness of
an owner to invest in their construction. Driveways are not
resurfaced, snow blown or otherwise kept up by governmental bodies.
They are often designed to conform to the architecture of the
connected home or other building.
Materials used for driveways include concrete,
decorative brick, cobblestone, asphalt, decomposed granite, and
various materials in alternation with grass or other ground cover
plants.
Driveways are commonly used as a path to a
garage or
house. Or, in the case of
large estates, a driveway may be the road that leads to the house
from the public road, possibly with a gate in between. There are
examples of one driveway that splits to service two or more garages
maintained by different owners. Driveway can also refer to a small
apron of hardscape in front of a garage and including a curb cut
sidewalk, sometimes too short to fit a parked auto.
Often, by choice or by local regulation, cars are
parked in longer driveways to leave streets clear for traffic. For
example, the city of Pasadena, California forbids parking on
residential streets from 2 am to 6 am, which results in deeper
driveways having been built and remaining usable. Residential
driveways are also frequently used by their owners for such things
as a garage sales,
auto washing and repair, and for recreation, most notably in North
America for basketball shooting practice.
See also
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Autobahn, US highway, alley, alleyway, arterial, arterial highway,
arterial street, artery,
autoroute, autostrada, avenue, belt highway, blind
alley, boulevard,
bypass, byway, camino real, carriageway, causeway, causey, chaussee, circumferential,
close, corduroy road,
county road, court,
crescent, cul-de-sac,
dead-end street, dike, dirt
road, drive, expressway, freeway, gravel road, highroad, highway, highways and byways,
interstate highway, lane,
local road, main drag, main road, mews, motorway, parkway, pave, paved road, pike, place, plank road, primary
highway, private road, right-of-way, ring road, road, roadbed, roadway, route nationale,
row, royal road, secondary
road, speedway, state
highway, street, superhighway, terrace, thoroughfare, through
street, thruway, toll
road, township road, turnpike, wynd