Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use gravel in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Gravel means small fragments of rock, used for laying on the beds of roads and railways, and as ballast. Example: “The workers were shovelling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.”

Examples of gravel by meaning

nounInability to see at night; night blindness.

  • A malady that was rare, but which because of its peculiarity elicited much comment, was "night blindness" or "gravel."1943, Bell Irvin Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 255

verbTo apply a layer of gravel to the surface of a road, etc.

  • 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.1905, John F. Hume, The Abolitionists

verbTo puzzle or annoy.

  • 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.1922, Herbert Quick, Vandemark's Folly

verbTo run (as a ship) upon the gravel or beach; to run aground; to (cause to) be grounded in gravel or sand.

  • the keeled gravelled on the beach1902, Agnes C. Laut, Heralds of Empire: Being the Story of One Ramsay Stanhope

More sentences with gravel

  • The workers were shovelling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.From the entry shovel
  • You have to riddle the gravel before you lay it on the road.From the entry riddle
  • We backfilled the cistern with pea gravel to discourage its use as a refuse container.From the entry backfill
  • The workers were shooling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.From the entry shool
  • It is difficult walking on loose gravel.From the entry loose
  • She is raking the gravel path to keep it even.From the entry rake
  • A stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.From the entry underlie
  • The gravel pit had been worked out.From the entry work out
  • Mary screened the beans to remove the clumps of gravel.From the entry screen
  • A few more miles of hot sand and gravel and red stone brought us around a low mesa to the Little Colorado River.From the entry mesa
  • Preamble is a hard-boiled steel commuter built for comfort, durability, and buffoonery on pavement and gravel.2025, “Pavement Bikes”, in Surly Bikes, retrieved 21 Feb 2025. From the entry buffoonery
  • Not even a Chinese philosopher can meditate endlessly on gravel so we get the ball next.2021, Jean Gill, “Examining Gravel and Live-heading Roses”, in True Colours: Six Books Drawn from Life […], [United States]: The 13th…. From the entry bend it like Beckham
  • Local verticordias prefer sands and sandy gravels, commonly in kwongan sandplain.2020 September 25, Doug Sawkins, “Verticordias in the Narrogin District”, in Foxes Lair Nature Reserve, archived from the original on 21…. From the entry verticordia
  • He never touched the Molloys, but Penny got a kneeful of black gravel once.2015, Aoife Walsh, Too Close to Home. From the entry kneeful
  • PBS Masterpiece's acclaimed crunchy gravel drama series Downton Abbey now has a final season premiere date.2015 August 1, James Hibberd, “'Downton Abbey' final season gets US premiere date”, in Entertainment Weekly. From the entry crunchy-gravel drama
  • Follow this with a layer of compacted "hoggin" – compacted clay, gravel and sand.2014 August 24, Jeff Howell, “Home improvements: gravel paths and cutting heating bills [print version: Cold comfort in technology, 23…. From the entry shingle
  • Either the long-dead wheelwright didn't think of that – or else early Pictland had gravelled roads.11 Oct 2013, Tom Shippey, The Guardian. From the entry Pictland
  • "How's it going Harold?", gravelled masculinely from a few tables away.2011, Eddie Horton, Just Compass, Bloomington, Ind.: Balboa Press, Hay House, →ISBN, page 173. From the entry tonguely
  • Runnymede Bridge is situated on an 'ey' – a small gravel islet close to the river bank.2009, Julie Wileman, War and Rumours of War, page 81. From the entry ey
  • Today the extractive industry utilizes sand and gravel reserves and quarries stone in Wingdale.2008, Donna P. Hearn, “The Iron and Marble Industries”, in Dover (Images of America), Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 77. From the entry quarry
  • Edna gave us a slack-handed wave as I agitated the road gravel.2007, Ed Lynskey, The Blue Cheer, →ISBN, page 149. From the entry slack-handed
  • Only gravel ridges are poor enough to offer pasques full elbow-room in April sun.2003, Jerry Pavia, Rocky Mountain Wildflowers: Photos, Descriptions, and Early Explorer Insights, Fulcrum Publishing, →ISBN, page 53. From the entry pasque
  • Can only see the roof and garden and a gravel pathway.2003 May 1, Oonya Kempadoo, Tide Running: A Novel, Macmillan + ORM, →ISBN. From the entry slatty
  • As I say for half a mile round the fort it is rutted gravel.1988, Robert Irwin, The Mysteries of Algiers, Dedalus, published 1993, page 66. From the entry reg
  • The city of Baker has recently paved their northwest-southeast runway and graveled the eastwest and northsouth runways.1964 July, James H. Monger, “Airport Notes”, in Monthly Publication of the Montana Aeronautics Commission, volume 15, number 6, Montana…. From the entry northsouth
  • New undrains, gravel retaining screens and air wash systems were installed.1952, Pennsylvania water works operators' association, Journal - Volumes 24-34, page 25. From the entry undrain
  • A crunch on the gravel brought me back to the present.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 78. From the entry screw up
  • As I stood there someone stepped crunchingly on the gravel path before the shuttered windows.1931, Hugh Walpole, Above the Dark Tumult, page 46. From the entry crunchingly
  • The clumping of hobnailed boots on the gravel outside proclaimed the approach of Manning.1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 63. From the entry questioningly
  • The simplest tool I can think of is a piece of gravel used for making a road.a. 1902, Samuel Butler, Geoffrey Keynes and Brian Hill editors, Notebooks: Selections, 1951, page 122. From the entry toolishness
  • The house was a rambling, Arts and Crafts villa with a lodge-house by the gateposts of its gravelled drive.2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 304. From the entry lodge-house
  • They were dug down one metre and backfilled with gravel or rubble stone to provide internal buttresses and deep drains.2021 April 7, “Network News: A long-standing problem: Victorian efforts to secure unstable slopes”, in RAIL, number 928, page 11. From the entry counterfort
  • It's like a huge belly-dumper dropped several loads in the canyon, leaving a 0.5-mile stretch 10 feet deep with gravel.2016, Bill Cunningham, Polly Cunningham, Hiking Death Valley National Park, →ISBN. From the entry belly-dumper
  • Nonaka seized on the critical importance of those who stormed the beaches first—the “gravel crunchers” as the Marines called them.2012, Daniel Denison, Robert Hooijberg, Nancy Lane, Leading Culture Change in Global Organizations. From the entry gravel cruncher
  • Set in a shallow, amphitheaterlike depression, once a gravel pit supplying material for the Thruway, it covers 11 acres.2009 May 8, Holland Cotter, “Where the Ocean Meets the Catskills”, in New York Times. From the entry amphitheaterlike
  • Bright, laughing streams, moving over their gravel beds and drowned ledges, fed by watercressed springs from under towering walls.2008, John Madson, Michael McIntosh, Out Home, page 69. From the entry watercressed

Meaning of gravel

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

Full definition of gravel

Questions about gravel in a sentence

How do you use gravel in a sentence?
Gravel is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The workers were shovelling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.”
What is a short sentence with gravel?
“the keeled gravelled on the beach”
What does gravel mean?
Gravel means small fragments of rock, used for laying on the beds of roads and railways, and as ballast.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gravel (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use gravel in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/gravel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.