gravy

Etymology

From Middle English gravey, greavie, gravy; probably from greaves, graves (“the sediment of melted tallow”), or from Old French grave, a claimed misspelling of grané (“stew, spice”), from grain (“spice”). Sense of "pasta sauce" apparently seems to be from Italian dialect, especially Calabrian, differentiating tomato puree (salsa (“sauce”)) from cooked tomato sauce (sugo).

noun

1. (countable, uncountable) A thick sauce made from the fat or juices that come out from meat or vegetables as they are being cooked.
   1. A dark savoury sauce prepared from stock and usually meat juices; brown gravy.
      A roast dinner isn't complete without gravy.
   2. (Southern US) A pale sauce prepared from a roux with meat fat; a type of béchamel sauce.
      There are few foods more Southern than biscuits and gravy.
2. (uncountable, chiefly Italian-American) Sauce used for pasta.
3. (uncountable, India, Singapore) Curry sauce.
   With this the hostess poured two or three spoonfuls of the gravy of the curry on to the rice opposite to each person. 1879, The Sunday at Home, volume 26, page 342
   Now it seems that Pa Senik was a little deaf. Awang noticed that his father-in-law sometimes poured the gravy of his curry on his rice and that sometimes he sucked it up. 1906, Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, "Pa Senik and his Son-in-Law Awang", Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, page 59-60
   This is strained with a piece of cloth or a strainer and the green liquid forms the gravy of the curry. 1992, Khammān Khonkhai, The Teachers of Mad Dog Swamp
   Return flaked fish to curry gravy and bring to the boil. 2007, Geok Boi Lee, Classic Asian Noodles, Marshall Cavendish, page 158
4. (uncountable, informal) Unearned gain.
5. (uncountable, informal) Extra benefit.
   The first thousand tickets and the concessions cover the venue and the band. The rest is gravy.

verb

1. To make gravy.
   I mean simply this — that the process of canning and preserving or of gravying and saucing frequently removes the most vitally essential acids and salts […] 1907, Edmond Raymond Moras, Autology (Study Thyself) and Autopathy (Cure Thyself), page 67
   Dola and another woman were so busy frying and grilling and buttering and gravying that they didn't even notice Bruce's existence. 2013, Ivan Doig, Bucking the Sun, page 103