Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An unconsolidated mixture of rock fragments or pebbles.
  • noun Medicine The sandlike granular material of urinary calculi.
  • transitive verb To apply a surface of rock fragments or pebbles to.
  • transitive verb To confuse; perplex.
  • transitive verb Informal To irritate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cover with gravel; fill or choke with gravel: as, to gravel a walk; to gravel a fountain.
  • To bury.
  • To cause to stick in gravel or sand.
  • Hence To bring to a standstill through perplexity; embarrass; puzzle; nonplus.
  • To hurt the foot of, as a horse, by the lodging of gravel under the shoe.
  • noun Coarse sand; a mass of pebbles or of pebbles and sand mixed; stone in a mass of small irregular fragments.
  • noun Specifically, in geology, the rolled and water-worn material formed from fragments of rock under the combined influence of atmospheric agencies and currents of water.
  • noun In pathology, small concretions or calculi resembling sand or gravel which form in the kidneys, pass along the ureters to the bladder, and are expelled with the urine; the disease or morbid state characterized by such concretions.
  • noun In brewing, the appearance of yeast-cells swimming in clear beer in the form of fine gravel.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Small stones, or fragments of stone; very small pebbles, often intermixed with particles of sand.
  • noun (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.
  • noun a coarse gunpowder; pebble powder.
  • transitive verb To cover with gravel.
  • transitive verb To run (as a ship) upon the gravel or beach; to run aground; to cause to stick fast in gravel or sand.
  • transitive verb colloq. To check or stop; to embarrass; to perplex.
  • transitive verb To hurt or lame (a horse) by gravel lodged between the shoe and foot.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable Small fragments of rock, used for laying on the beds of roads and railroads, and as ballast.
  • noun A type or grade of small rocks, differentiated by mineral type, size range, or other characteristics.
  • noun uncountable, geology A particle from 2 to 64 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale
  • noun uncountable, archaic 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.
  • verb transitive To apply a layer of gravel to the surface of a road, etc.
  • verb To puzzle or annoy
  • verb To run (as a ship) upon the gravel or beach; to run aground; to cause to stick fast in gravel or sand.
  • verb To check or stop; to embarrass; to perplex.
  • verb To hurt or lame (a horse) by gravel lodged between the shoe and foot.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cover with gravel
  • noun rock fragments and pebbles
  • verb be a mystery or bewildering to
  • verb cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French gravele, diminutive of grave, pebbly shore, of Celtic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French gravele, diminutive of grave ("gravel", "seashore").

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Examples

  • Idle speculation makes me think that excluding gravel from the mixture may make the surface more uniform and free from discontinuities (slight depressions where gravel is on the surface, voids where gravel comes out of the mixture during curing, etc.) which could be the starting point for blistering (air would expand at a much higher rate than concrete when heated, and the membrane coating might not adhere as well to the gravel).

    House Project Update for 7 December 02 2002

  • They saw him draw a bucket of gravel from the hole and tilt it on the edge of the dump.

    TOO MUCH GOLD 2010

  • They saw him draw a bucket of gravel from the hole and tilt it on the edge of the dump.

    Too Much Gold 2010

  • Most of our gravel is dark and covered with dark green moss.

    All About Jigs 2009

  • Here we had carried many loads of gravel from the creek-bed, so that it was dry and warm, a pleasant basking place; and here, one afternoon, I was drowsing, half asleep, over a volume of Mendenhall. 4 I was so comfortable and secure that even his flaming lyrics failed to stir me.

    Chapter 20: A Lost Oligarch 2010

  • It's a gorgeous tune, and he was, what, seventeen? but the idea of "trough" as the basic unit of hearts, like a cubic yard of gravel, is ... upsetting.

    The Hills of Tomorrow Matthew Guerrieri 2008

  • George find a place to stake a claim and takes a pan of gravel from the creek bed and finds gold streaks the black sand at the bottom of the pan.

    “Why this longing for life? It is a game which no man wins.” 2008

  • Lately he has been digging up small orchids growing in gravel around the community he lives.

    The Bright Side of Frugality 2008

  • I dig the real plants, and the gravel is conveniently bite-sized, so I can pick it up and toss it around with my mouth.

    Even so, Spring -- quickly come the_mercury 2007

  • We had ridden about 11 miles at this point -- all of it uphill and in gravel ... well I guess I should also mention the loose rocks and sand.

    Albloggerque johnny_mango 2005

Comments

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  • Is defined by the Udden-Wentworth scale as having a particle size of 2 to 64 millimetres.

    February 26, 2007

  • ...he would drive determinedly by one of the stores to tease me ... only to turn toward another one suddenly, in a gravel of surprise.

    - William Gass, The Tunnel

    May 18, 2009