from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A hostile invasion; a raid.
- n. An advance, especially at another's expense; an encroachment. Often used in the plural: Foreign products have made inroads into the American economy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. an advance into enemy territory, an incursion, an attempted invasion
- n. progress made toward accomplishing a goal or solving a problem
- v. To make an inroad into; to invade.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The entrance of an enemy into a country with purposes of hostility; a sudden or desultory incursion or invasion; raid; encroachment.
- transitive v. To make an inroad into; to invade.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make an inroad into; invade.
- To make an inroad; encroach; depredate.
- n. A predatory or hostile incursion; a raid by public enemies; a temporary or desultory invasion.
- n. Forcible entrance; powerful or sudden influx or incursion; forcible or insidious encroachment.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. an encroachment or intrusion
- n. an invasion or hostile attack
Like the cyberpunks, these writers give us an 'inroad' for understanding and adapting to rapid change in technology.
They're visual trickery in fash form, a 12 quid inroad to cool.
As a result, a cap of £10,000 would make a massive inroad into the finances of the main parties.
Achieving this objective will constitute a first inroad into the advertising system.
An announcement that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would visit the country next month signals a preliminary U.S. inroad into the poor, yet strategically important, country.
In the U.S., Toyota's recall of millions of vehicles has provided an inroad for rivals such as Hyundai Motor Co. and a revitalized Detroit Big Three.
Right now less than half the adult population has a bank account, creating an opening for banks that can use mobile technology to serve the vast number of "unbanked" consumers--as well as a potential inroad to the whole of Africa.
Buying Hsu Fu Chi would give Nestlé a new inroad to the booming market for candy in China, where demand for sweet treats has grown rapidly over the past decade as consumers' incomes have risen.
In the U.S. agriculture industry, distillers dried grain has been seen as an important inroad to the Chinese food market.
This inroad of the Fire People on the carrot-patch was the beginning of the end, though we did not know it.