Gavel vs Gravel - What's the difference?
gavel | gravel |
A wooden mallet, used by a courtroom judge, or by a committee chairman, struck against a sounding block to quieten those present, or by an auctioneer to accept the highest bid at auction.
(figuratively) The legal system as a whole.
A mason's setting maul.
To use a gavel.
(uncountable) Small fragments of rock, used for laying on the beds of roads and railroads, and as ballast.
A type or grade of small rocks, differentiated by mineral type, size range, or other characteristics.
(uncountable, geology) A particle from 2 to 64 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale
(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.
To apply a layer of gravel to the surface of a road, etc.
* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=John F. Hume, title=The Abolitionists, chapter=, edition=
, passage=We kept quietly on our way until we reached a place in the road that had been freshly graveled , and where the surface was covered with stones just suited to our use.}}
* {{quote-news, year=2006, date=May 5, author=Harold Henderson, title=Snips, work=Chicago Reader
, passage=The soldiers admitted that while they had the money to lay gravel on a particular road, they lacked the funds to pave it, even though all agreed that graveled roads offered easy concealment for IEDs.}}
To puzzle or annoy
* {{quote-book, year=1894, author=Anthony Hope, title=Dolly Dialogues, chapter=, edition=
, passage="The fracture is your making; the pin--" Here Miss Dolly interrupted; to tell the truth I was not sorry, for I was fairly graveled for the meaning of the pin.}}
* {{quote-book, year=1919, author=Christopher Darlington Morley, title=Mince Pie, chapter=, edition=
, passage='Oh, yes,' says Jan. Pond was graveled ; didn't know just what to do.}}
* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=Herbert Quick, title=Vandemark's Folly, chapter=, edition=
, passage=It graveled me like sixty to pay such a price, but I had to do it because the season was just between hay and grass.}}
To run (as a ship) upon the gravel or beach; to run aground; to cause to stick fast in gravel or sand.
* Bible, Acts xxvii. 41 (Rhemish version)
* Camden
To check or stop; to embarrass; to perplex.
* Shakespeare
* Sir T. North
To hurt or lame (a horse) by gravel lodged between the shoe and foot.
(Webster 1913)
As nouns the difference between gavel and gravel
is that gavel is rent while gravel is small fragments of rock, used for laying on the beds of roads and railroads, and as ballast.As verbs the difference between gavel and gravel
is that gavel is to use a gavel while gravel is to apply a layer of gravel to the surface of a road, etc.gavel
English
(wikipedia gavel)Etymology 1
(etyl) gafol.Etymology 2
Origin obscure. Perhaps alteration of . More at (l).Noun
(en noun)- (Knight)
Verb
Usage notes
* In US English, the participles are gaveled and gaveling, in British English they are gavelled and gavelling.Etymology 3
(etyl) gavelle, (etyl) javelle, probably diminutive from (etyl) (lena) . Compare heave.Etymology 4
gravel
English
(wikipedia gravel)Noun
(en-noun)Synonyms
* (small stones or pebbles) * (calculus deposit) stones, gallstonesSee also
* alluviumVerb
(gravell)citation
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- When we were fallen into a place between two seas, they gravelled the ship.
- Willam the Conqueror chanced as his arrival to be gravelled ; and one of his feet stuck so fast in the sand that he fell to the ground.
- When you were gravelled for lack of matter.
- The physician was so gravelled and amazed withal, that he had not a word more to say.