gravel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɡɹævəl/
rhymes: -ævəl
Forms: form: gravels
Etymology: From Middle English gravel, grauel, from Old French gravele, diminutive of grave (“gravel, seashore”), from Medieval Latin grava, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *grāwā (“gravel, pebbles”) (compare Breton groa, Cornish grow, Welsh gro), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰroh₁weh₂, from *gʰreh₁w- (“to grind”). Compare also Old English græfa (“coal”).
Senses: glosses: Small fragments of rock, used for laying on the beds of roads and railways, and as ballast.
glosses: A type or grade of small rocks, differentiated by mineral type, size range, or other characteristics.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
coordinate_terms: boulder
cobble
sand
silt
clay
colloid
glosses: A particle from 2 to 64 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
examples: text: The great use of coffee in France is supposed to have abated the prevalency of the gravel, for where coffee is used as a constant beverage, the gravel and the gout are scarcely known.
ref: 1848, J. S. Skinner & Son, editor, The Plough, The Loom and the Anvil, volume I, Philadelphia: J. S. Skinner & Son, page 137:
glosses: Kidney stones; a deposit of small calculous concretions in the kidneys and the urinary or gall bladder; also, the disease of which they are a symptom.
examples: text: The defendant below hired the horse to go from Cocksackie to Schodack, and the next day after his arrival at the latter place, the horse was found to be lame in one foot; and the lameness increasing, the defendant below was obliged to leave the horse there, and hire another with which to return. About four weeks after, the horse was brought home, and showed signs of gravel working out above the hoof.
ref: 1817, William Johnson, editor, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature, E. F. Backus, page 211:
text: 'Looks like pus in the foot to me.'
'I'll bet you're right,' Farnon said. 'They call it gravel around here, by the way. What do you suggest we do about it?'
ref: 1972, James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small, St. Martin's Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 22:
glosses: A lameness in the foot of a horse, usually caused by an abscess.
examples: text: A malady that was rare, but which because of its peculiarity elicited much comment, was "night blindness" or "gravel."
ref: 1943, Bell Irvin Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 255:
glosses: Inability to see at night; night blindness.
topics: cycling
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Gravel cycling, a discipline in cycling different from road cycling, mountain biking or cyclocross, for a large part on gravel roads, typically with a dedicated gravel bike.
glosses: The stimulant drug alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone.
Synonyms: sense: small stones or pebbles
word: chisel
sense: small stones or pebbles
word: chessil
sense: calculus deposit
word: stones
sense: calculus deposit
word: gallstones
Derived terms: crunchy-gravel drama
gravel bicycle
gravel bike
gravel-blind
gravel cruncher
graveldiver
graveler
graveliferous
gravellike
gravellish
gravelly
gravel nest
gravelometer
gravel pit
gravel road
gravel road cop
gravel stop
gravel trap
gravel-voiced
gravel-walk
kidney gravel
paleogravel
pea gravel
regravel
shell gravel
Related terms: alluvium