gravel
Plural: gravels
Noun
- rock fragments and pebbles
- 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.
- A lameness in the foot of a horse, usually caused by an abscess.
- Inability to see at night; night blindness.
- 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.
- The stimulant drug alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone.
Verb
Verb Forms: graveled, gravelling, gravels, gravelled
- To cover or spread with gravel.
- cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations
- cover with gravel
- "We gravelled the driveway"
- be a mystery or bewildering to
- 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 confound; to perplex.
- To hurt or lame (a horse) by gravel lodged between the shoe and foot.
- To prostrate; to beat to the ground.
Examples
- He chose to gravel the empty spaces on the board with low-scoring words.
Origin / 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”).
Synonyms
amaze, annoy, baffle, beat, bewilder, bother, chafe, crushed rock, devil, dumbfound, flummox, get, get at, get to, irritate, mystify, nark, nettle, nonplus, perplex, pose, puzzle, rag, rile, stick, stupefy, vex, chessil, chisel, gallstones, stones
Scrabble Score: 10
gravel: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordgravel: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
gravel: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary