roadmaker

Noun

1. Someone who or something that builds roads.
   • The really acute roadmaker will be as shy of having clay in the interstices of his stone work as the vigilant mason is of having clay in a brick or stone wall. - 1891, Lewis Muhlenberg Haupt, A Move for Better Roads,...
   • In France every freight and market wagon is a roadmaker. - 1901, Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor on the Canals of New York, page 129:
   • Hannibal was a roadmaker, Cromwell was a roadmaker, Napoleon was a roadmaker. - 1912, Andrew Broder, “Address”, in Sessional Papers of the Ontario Legislative Assembly, volume 44, number 5, page 10:
2. An innovator; a trailblazer; a pioneer.
   • In what way and to what extent may Gresham be looked upon as a roadmaker? - 1925, Frank Reyner Salter, Sir Thomas Gresham (1518-1579), page 166:
   • Who have been the roadmakers? The men and women who, by their intellect or character or example ... have prepared the way for human progress. They are the pioneers. - 1925, The Scottish Educational Journal - Volume 8,...
   • Among other troublesome questions, it is difficult to make up your mind exactly what can be the qualities which distinguish a "roadmaker" from an ordinary writer. Would you call Shelley a '"roadmaker," " or Donne? -...