different between gavel vs gravel

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??a.v?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??æ.v?l/

Etymology 1

From Middle English gavel, from Old English gafol, from Proto-Germanic *gabul?, from Proto-Germanic *geban? (“to give”), equivalent to give +? -el.

Noun

gavel (countable and uncountable, plural gavels)

1. (historical) Rent.
2. (obsolete) Usury; interest on money.
3. (historical) An old Saxon and Welsh form of tenure by which an estate passed, on the holder's death, to all the sons equally; also called gavelkind.

Verb

gavel (third-person singular simple present gavels, present participle gaveling or gavelling, simple past and past participle gaveled or gavelled)

1. (transitive) To divide or distribute according to the gavel system.

Etymology 2

Origin obscure. Perhaps alteration of cavel (“a stone mason's hammer”). More at cavel. Has also been linked to an Old Norse origin.

Noun

gavel (plural gavels)

1. 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.
2. (metonymically, chiefly US) The legal system as a whole.
3. A mason's setting maul.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

Translations

Verb

gavel (third-person singular simple present gavels, present participle gaveling or gavelling, simple past and past participle gaveled or gavelled)

1. To use a gavel.

Usage notes

• In US English, the participles are gaveled and gaveling; in British English they are gavelled and gavelling.

Translations

Etymology 3

Old French gavelle, French javelle, probably diminutive from Latin capulus (“handle”), from capere (“to lay hold of, seize”); or compare Welsh gafael (“hold, grasp”). Compare heave.

Noun

gavel (plural gavels)

1. A small heap of grain, not tied up into a bundle.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

Translations

Etymology 4

Noun

gavel (plural gavels)

1. (Scotland, architecture) A gable.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Anagrams

• glave

Swedish

Noun

gavel c

1. a gable, a short wall of a building

Declension

Related terms

• husgavel

English

Etymology

From Middle English gravel, grauel, from Old French gravele, diminutive of grave (“gravel, seashore”), from Medieval Latin grava, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *gr?w? (“gravel, pebbles”) (compare Breton groa, Cornish grow, Welsh gro), from Proto-Indo-European *g?roh?weh?, from *g?reh?w- (“to grind”). Compare also Old English græfa (“coal”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???æv?l/
• Rhymes: -æv?l

Noun

gravel (usually uncountable, plural gravels)

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

   Coordinate terms: (>256 mm) boulder, (64–256 mm) cobble, (62.5 ?m – 2 mm) sand, (3.9–62.5 ?m) silt, (0.98–3.9 ?m) clay, (0.95–977 nm) colloid

4. (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): chisel/chessil
• (calculus deposit): stones, gallstones

Derived terms

• gravel pit
• gravel road
• pea gravel

Translations

See also

• alluvium

Verb

gravel (third-person singular simple present gravels, present participle gravelling or graveling, simple past and past participle gravelled or graveled)

1. (transitive) To apply a layer of gravel to the surface of a road, etc.
2. To puzzle or annoy.
3. To run (as a ship) upon the gravel or beach; to run aground; to cause to stick fast in gravel or sand.
   • 1605, William Camden, “Grave Speeches and wittie Apothegms of worthy Personages of this Realm in former times,” in Remaines Concerning Britain, London: Simon Miller, sixth impression, 1657, p. 243, ^[3]

     William Conqerour when he invaded this Iland, chanced at his arrival to be gravelled, and one of his feet stuck so fast in the sand, that he fell to the ground.

4. To check or stop; to embarrass; to perplex.
   • 1579, Sir Thomas North, tr., Plutarch's Lives, The Life of Marcus Antonius:

     The physician was so gravelled and amazed withal, that he had not a word more to say.

   • 1598, Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act IV:

     When you were gravelled for lack of matter.

   • 1830, Joseph Plumb Martin, A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier, Ch. VIII:

     […] I arrived at a spot where I was completely gravelled, and could go no farther one way or the other; […]

5. To hurt or lame (a horse) by gravel lodged between the shoe and foot.

Usage notes

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

Translations

Anagrams

• glaver

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English gravel.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: gra?vel

Noun

gravel m or n (uncountable)

1. clay court (surface for playing tennis)