Search the Dictionary

an eddy; a ripple. Whose stream an easy breath doth seem to blow, Which on the sparkling gravel runs in purles, As though the waves had been of silver curls. Drayton.

Gravelly stone. [Prov. Eng.]

for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand.

rking with a rocking motion, as a trough mounted on rockers for separating gold dust from gravel, etc., by agitation in water.

Seriously; soberly; gravely. [Obs.] To tell thee sadly, shepherd, without blame Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. Milton.

perforated cylinder, used to separate the coarser from the finer parts, as of coal, sand, gravel, and the like.

shoal; a flat; a shelf. A swift stream is not heard in the channel, but upon shallows of gravel. Bacon. Dashed on the shallows of the moving sand. Dryden.

heep sorrel. (Bot.), a prerennial herb (Rumex Acetosella) growing naturally on poor, dry, gravelly soil. Its leaves have a pleasant acid taste like sorrel. -- Sheep's-wool (Zoöl.), the highest grade of Florida commercial sponges (Spongia equina, variety gossypina). -- Sheep tick (Zoöl.), a wingless parasitic insect (…

Round, water-worn, and loose gravel and pebbles, or a collection of roundish stones, such as are common on the seashore and elsewhere.

Abounding with shingle, or gravel.

In a sober manner; temperately; cooly; calmly; gravely; seriously.

To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely. Home the swain retreats, His flock before him stepping to the fold. Thomson.

A trough for washing broken ore, gravel, or sand; a launder.

use a stream of water is the principal agent used in separating the ore from the sand and gravel. -- Stream works (Cornish Mining), a place where an alluvial deposit of tin ore is worked. Ure. -- To float with the stream, figuratively, to drift with the current of opinion, custom, etc., so as not to oppose or check i…

uent handling; also, to cover with the thumb; as, to thumb the touch-hole of a cannon. He gravely informed the enemy that all his cards had been thumbed to pieces, and begged them to let him have a few more packs. Macaulay.

A deposit of clay, sand, and gravel, without lamination, formed in a glacier valley by means of the waters derived from the melting glaciers; -- sometimes applied to alluvium of an upper river terrace, when not laminated, and appearing as if formed in the same manner.

under; to rest beneath; to be situated under; as, a stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.

A slip of grass adjoining gravel walks, and dividing them from the borders in a parterre.

a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed with silver. To wash gold, etc., to treat earth or gravel, or crushed ore, with water, in order to separate the gold or other metal, or metallic ore, through their superior gravity. -- To wash the hands of. See under Hand.