Adjacent Words

Gravel definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GRAV'EL, n.
1. Small stones or fragments of stone, or very small pebbles, larger than the particles of sand, but often intermixed with them.
2. In medicine, small calculous concretions in the kidneys and bladder.
GRAV'EL, v.t. To cover with gravel; as, to gravel a walk.
1. To stick in the sand.
2. To puzzle; to stop; to embarrass.
3. To hurt the foot of a horse, by gravel lodged under the shoe.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: rock fragments and pebbles [syn: gravel, crushed rock] v
1: cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations; "Mosquitoes buzzing in my ear really bothers me"; "It irritates me that she never closes the door after she leaves" [syn: annoy, rag, get to, bother, get at, irritate, rile, nark, nettle, gravel, vex, chafe, devil]
2: cover with gravel; "We gravelled the driveway"
3: be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me--I don't know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"; "This question really stuck me" [syn: perplex, vex, stick, get, puzzle, mystify, baffle, beat, pose, bewilder, flummox, stupefy, nonplus, gravel, amaze, dumbfound]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French gravele, diminutive of grave, greve river bank, stony ground Date: 13th century 1. obsolete sand 2. a. loose rounded fragments of rock b. a stratum or deposit of gravel; also a surface covered with gravel <a gravel road> 3. small calculi in the kidneys and urinary bladder II. transitive verb (-eled or -elled; -eling or gravelling) Date: 1543 1. to cover or spread with gravel 2. a. perplex, confound b. irritate, nettle <disappointed…and graveled him a good deal — Mark Twain> III. adjective Date: 1939 gravelly 2 — used of the human voice

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a a mixture of coarse sand and small water-worn or pounded stones, used for paths and roads and as an aggregate. b Geol. a stratum of this. 2 Med. aggregations of crystals formed in the urinary tract. --v.tr. (gravelled, gravelling; US graveled, graveling) 1 lay or strew with gravel. 2 perplex, puzzle, nonplus (from an obs. sense 'run (a ship) aground'). Phrases and idioms: gravel-blind literary almost completely blind ('more than sand-blind', in Shakesp. Merchant of Venice II. ii. 33). Etymology: ME f. OF gravel(e) dimin. of grave (as GRAVE(4))

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Gravel Grav"el, n. [OF. gravele, akin to F. gr?ve a sandy shore, strand; of Celtic origin; cf. Armor. grouan gravel, W. gro coarse gravel, pebbles, and Skr. gr[=a]van stone.] 1. Small stones, or fragments of stone; very small pebbles, often intermixed with particles of sand. 2. (Med.) A deposit of small calculous concretions in the kidneys and the urinary or gall bladder; also, the disease of which they are a symptom. Gravel powder, a coarse gunpowder; pebble powder.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Gravel Grav"el, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Graveledor Gravelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Graveling or Gravelling.] 1. To cover with gravel; as, to gravel a walk. 2. To run (as a ship) upon the gravel or beach; to run aground; to cause to stick fast in gravel or sand. When we were fallen into a place between two seas, they graveled the ship. --Acts xxvii. 41 (Rhemish version). Willam the Conqueror . . . chanced as his arrival to be graveled; and one of his feet stuck so fast in the sand that he fell to the ground. --Camden. 3. To check or stop; to embarrass; to perplex. [Colloq.] When you were graveled for lack of matter. --Shak. The physician was so graveled and amazed withal, that he had not a word more to say. --Sir T. North. 4. To hurt or lame (a horse) by gravel lodged between the shoe and foot.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Gravel consists of very small stones. It is often used to make paths. ...a gravel path leading to the front door. N-UNCOUNT: oft N n

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

grav'-el (chatsats, from root chatsats, "to divide." Kindred roots have the meaning of "to cut," "to hew," "to sharpen," hence chets, "arrow" (2Ki 13:17; Ps 64:7 and often); compare Arabic chacca, "to fall to the lot of," chiccah, "portion"): In Pr 20:17, we have:

"Bread of falsehood is sweet to a man;

But afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel."

And in La 3:16:

"He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he

hath covered me with ashes."

The only other occurrence of the word is in Ps 77:17, where it is the equivalent of chets, "arrow" (see supra):

"The clouds poured out water;

The skies sent out a sound:

Thine arrows also went abroad."

Pr 20:17 and La 3:16 both suggest the frequent occurrence of grit in the coarse bread, the source of the grit being not necessarily the grindstone, but possibly even small stones originally mingled with the wheat and never properly separated from it.

Alfred Ely Day

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Sand, grit, small pebbles. II. v. a. 1. Cover with gravel. 2. Puzzle, embarrass, perplex, bewilder, stagger, pose, nonplus, put out.

Moby Thesaurus

Tarmac, Tarvia, asphalt, bitumen, bituminous macadam, blacktop, breccia, brick, cement, chafe, cobble, cobblestone, concrete, curb, curbing, curbstone, debris, detritus, edgestone, exacerbate, flag, flagging, flagstone, fret, gall, grain, granule, granulet, grate, grate on, grit, irritate, kerb, kerbstone, macadam, pavement, pavestone, paving, paving stone, provoke, rasp, road metal, sand, set on edge, shingle, stone, tarmacadam, tile, washboard