gravel

Meanings

Noun

• Small fragments of rock, used for laying on the beds of roads and railways, and as ballast.
• A type or grade of small rocks, differentiated by mineral type, size range, or other characteristics.
• A particle from 2 to 64 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
• 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

• To apply a layer of gravel to the surface of a road, etc.
• To puzzle or annoy.
• To run (as a ship) upon the gravel or beach; to run aground; to cause to stick fast in gravel or sand.
• To check or stop; to embarrass; to perplex.
• To hurt or lame (a horse) by gravel lodged between the shoe and foot.

Related

Similar words

• chisel/chessil
• stones, gallstones

Origin

• From Middle English gravel, grauel, from Old French gravele, diminutive of grave, 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-. Compare also Old English græfa.