zebra crossing

Meaning

A zebra crossing is a specific type of pedestrian crossing marked with alternating black and white stripes painted on the road. It gives pedestrians immediate priority over vehicles once they step onto it. This term is highly common in British English, Commonwealth countries, and Ireland, but is rarely used in American English.

Examples

• Watch out, there is a pedestrian waiting to use the zebra crossing ahead.

  Watch out, there is a pedestrian waiting to use the zebra crossing ahead.

• In the UK, drivers must stop as soon as someone steps onto a zebra crossing.

  In the UK, drivers must stop as soon as someone steps onto a zebra crossing.

• The famous Beatles album cover shows the band walking across a zebra crossing on Abbey Road.

  The famous Beatles album cover shows the band walking across a zebra crossing on Abbey Road.

• It's much safer to walk a bit further and use the zebra crossing than to run across the highway.

  It's much safer to walk a bit further and use the zebra crossing than to run across the highway.

• They painted a new zebra crossing right outside the library last week.

  They painted a new zebra crossing right outside the library last week.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ Let's cross the road at the zebra lines.

  ✓ Let's cross the road at the zebra crossing.

  While the pattern looks like stripes or lines, the actual road feature is called a zebra crossing.

• ✗ The driver didn't see me on the zebra cross.

  ✓ The driver didn't see me on the zebra crossing.

  Crossing is the full noun; cross is a verb and cannot be used as the noun for this road structure.

Related Expressions

Practice

• The Abbey Road album cover features the Beatles on a ___.

  💡 A striped pedestrian path on the road.

  Show answer

  zebra crossing

• You have the right of way once you step onto the ___.

  💡 The black-and-white striped crossing.

  Show answer

  zebra crossing