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Ravel vs Gravel - What's the difference?

ravel | gravel |

As nouns the difference between ravel and gravel

is that ravel is a snarl, complication 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 ravel and gravel

is that ravel is to tangle; entangle; entwine confusedly, become snarled; thus to involve; perplex; confuse while gravel is to apply a layer of gravel to the surface of a road, etc.

ravel

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • a snarl, complication
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1927 , year_published=2009 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=DH Lawrence , title=Mornings in Mexico , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=Project Gutenberg Australia , isbn= , page= , passage=The savannah valley is shadeless, spotted only with the thorny ravel of mesquite bushes. }}

    Verb

  • To tangle; entangle; entwine confusedly, become snarled; thus to involve; perplex; confuse.
  • * Waller
    • What glory's due to him that could divide / Such ravelled interests?
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • The faith of very many men seems a duty so weak and indifferent, is so often untwisted by violence, or ravelled and entangled in weak discourses!
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1871 , year_published=2011 , edition=Digitized , editor= , author= , title=Popular Science News, Volumes 5-7 , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher= , isbn= , page=61 , passage=… and in them are minute glands , which resemble ravelled tubes … }}
  • :* {{quote-web
    • , date=2011-09-10 , year= , first= , last= , author=Martha T. Moore , authorlink= , title=After 9/11, dinner gang raises funds to honor those lost , site=USA Today citation , archiveorg= , accessdate=2012-08-24 , passage=But the real work of the First Thursday Foundation is remembering, and its biggest gift is knitting back together lives raveled by loss. }}
  • To undo the intricacies of; to disentangle or clarify.
  • To pull apart (especially cloth or a seam); unravel.
  • (computing, programming) In the APL language, to reshape (a variable) into a vector.
  • * 1975 , Tse-yun Feng, Parallel processing: proceedings of the Sagamore Computer Conference
    • LOAD.S loads a sequence of scalars from the ravelled form of a matrix into successive AM elements.
  • * 1980 , Gijsbert van der Linden, APL 80: International Conference on APL, June 24-26, 1980
    • Ravelling is necessary because the execute function in the IBM implementation only accepts charactervectors as argument.

    Usage notes

    * The spellings ravelling and ravelled are more common in the UK than in the US.

    References

    * Century Dictionary, Vol. VI, Page 4976, ravel * Century Dictionary Supplement, Vol. XII, Page 1114, ravel * Online Etymology, ravel

    Anagrams

    * * * English contranyms

    gravel

    English

    (wikipedia gravel)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (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.

    • Synonyms

    * (small stones or pebbles) * (calculus deposit) stones, gallstones

    See also

    * alluvium

    Verb

    (gravell)
  • 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= citation
    • , 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 citation
    • , 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= citation
    • , 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= citation
    • , 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= citation
    • , 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)
    • When we were fallen into a place between two seas, they gravelled the ship.
  • * Camden
    • 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.
  • To check or stop; to embarrass; to perplex.
  • * Shakespeare
    • When you were gravelled for lack of matter.
  • * Sir T. North
    • The physician was so gravelled and amazed withal, that he had not a word more to say.
  • To hurt or lame (a horse) by gravel lodged between the shoe and foot.
    • (Webster 1913)

    Usage notes

    * In North American English, the forms graveled and graveling are more common.