gravelly

Etymology

(sense 1) on Therasia, one of the Cyclades islands in Greece.]] 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’).

adj

1. Full of, covered with, or similar to gravel or pebbles.
2. Of a voice: unpleasantly harsh or rasping.
3. (pathology) Caused by or involving gravel (“kidney stones”).
4. (obsolete) Full of or covered with sand; sandy.