Gravelly

//ˈɡɹævəli// adj

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Full of, covered with, or similar to gravel or pebbles.

    "The dung which men make […] is greatly miſlyked, for that by nature it is hoter and burneth the ſeedes ſowne in that earth: ſo that this is not to bee uſed, unleſſe the ground be a barren, grauelly or verie louſe ſand, lacking ſtrength in it, which being on ſuche wiſe, requyreth the more helpe of nouriſhment and fatning, through this kinde of dung: […]"

  2. 2
    Of a voice: unpleasantly harsh or rasping.

    "[…] currently incarcerated Stinc Team members Ketchy the Great, SaySoTheMac, and Bambino; the devilish and gravelly Almighty Suspect; red-clad Inglewooder and headband connoisseur FreeAckrite; baby-faced Martin Luther King Park loiterer Johnny Rose; […]"

  3. 3
    Caused by or involving gravel (“kidney stones”).
  4. 4
    Full of or covered with sand; sandy. obsolete

    "As the goeing vp a grauelie way in the feete of the aged, ſo a woman ful of tongue to a quiet man."

Adjective
  1. 1
    unpleasantly harsh or grating in sound wordnet
  2. 2
    abounding in small stones wordnet

Etymology

From Middle English gravelli (“covered with gravel or sand; (pathology) containing sand-like matter”), from gravel (“sand; grain of stand; gravel, pebbles; (pathology) sand-like matter in the urine, calculus”) + -lī (suffix forming adjectives). Gravel is derived from Old French gravel, gravele, gravelle (“gravel; (pathology) calculus”) (modern French gravelle (“(pathology) calculus”)), from grave (“coarse sand, gravel; seashore”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁w- (“to grind”); modern French grève (“riverbank; shore, strand”)) + -ele (diminutive suffix). The English word is analysable as gravel + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘having the quality of’).

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