Library / English Dictionary

GRAVEL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: gravelled    , gravelling   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Rock fragments and pebbles

Synonyms:

crushed rock; gravel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("gravel" is a kind of...):

rock; stone (material consisting of the aggregate of minerals like those making up the Earth's crust)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gravel"):

ballast (coarse gravel laid to form a bed for streets and railroads)

bank gravel; pit-run gravel; pit run (gravel as found in natural deposits)

shingle (coarse beach gravel of small waterworn stones and pebbles (or a stretch of shore covered with such gravel))

Derivation:

gravel (cover with gravel)

gravelly (abounding in small stones)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be a mystery or bewildering to

Example:

This question really stuck me

Synonyms:

amaze; baffle; beat; bewilder; dumbfound; flummox; get; gravel; mystify; nonplus; perplex; pose; puzzle; stick; stupefy; vex

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "gravel" is one way to...):

bedevil; befuddle; confound; confuse; discombobulate; fox; fuddle; throw (be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gravel"):

mix up; stump (cause to be perplexed or confounded)

riddle (set a difficult problem or riddle)

elude; escape (be incomprehensible to; escape understanding by)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cover with gravel

Example:

We gravelled the driveway

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "gravel" is one way to...):

cover (provide with a covering or cause to be covered)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

gravel (rock fragments and pebbles)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations

Example:

It irritates me that she never closes the door after she leaves

Synonyms:

annoy; bother; chafe; devil; get at; get to; gravel; irritate; nark; nettle; rag; rile; vex

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "gravel" is one way to...):

displease (give displeasure to)

Verb group:

chafe (feel extreme irritation or anger)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gravel"):

get; get under one's skin (irritate)

eat into; fret; grate; rankle (gnaw into; make resentful or angry)

peeve (cause to be annoyed, irritated, or resentful)

ruffle (trouble or vex)

fret (cause annoyance in)

beset; chevvy; chevy; chivvy; chivy; harass; harry; hassle; molest; plague; provoke (annoy continually or chronically)

antagonise; antagonize (provoke the hostility of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to gravel Sue

Credits

 Context examples: 

His footsteps were heard along the gravel path; in a moment he was in the passage, and in another he was before them.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

She came solitarily down the gravel walk—a Miss Martin just appearing at the door, and parting with her seemingly with ceremonious civility.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The house was approached by gravelled driveways which wound about through wide-spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs of tall poplars.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The conservatory doors were standing open, and Rosa Dartle was walking, bareheaded, with a quick, impetuous step, up and down a gravel walk on one side of the lawn.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Hydrocarbons appear to be flowing underneath Titan's surface similar to the way water flows through underground porous rock or gravel on Earth, so that nearby lakes communicate with each other and share a common liquid level.

(Cassini Finds Saturn Moon Has 'Sea Level' Like Earth, NASA)

In half a minute Charles was at the bottom of Union Street again, and the other two proceeding together: and soon words enough had passed between them to decide their direction towards the comparatively quiet and retired gravel walk, where the power of conversation would make the present hour a blessing indeed, and prepare it for all the immortality which the happiest recollections of their own future lives could bestow.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

To pass between lodges of a modern appearance, to find herself with such ease in the very precincts of the abbey, and driven so rapidly along a smooth, level road of fine gravel, without obstacle, alarm, or solemnity of any kind, struck her as odd and inconsistent.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

There was a sort of poetic justice about it, after all, for the old lady had been the terror of the boys for miles around, and now the exiles feasted freely on forbidden plums, kicked up the gravel with profane boots unreproved, and played cricket in the big field where the irritable 'cow with a crumpled horn' used to invite rash youths to come and be tossed.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was not difficult to tell the direction which she had taken, for, starting from under her window, we could follow her footmarks easily across the lawn to the edge of the mere, where they vanished close to the gravel path which leads out of the grounds.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They paused, however, at the bridge, and, leaning their elbows upon the stonework, they stood looking down at their own faces in the glassy stream, and at the swift flash of speckled trout against the tawny gravel.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)