have been 'a woman whose husband is away,' either travelling or living apart. The people of Belgium call a woman of this description haeck-wedewe, from haecken, to feel strong desire. . . . It seems probable, therefore, from the etymology, taken in connection with the Clevel. signification, that our word may rather be from the Scand. source than from the German; only with a translation of the word enka into its English equivalent. Dan. D., graesenka, is a female whose betrothed lover (fastman) is dead; nearly equivalent to which is German, strohwittwe, literally straw-widow. See N. and Q. 6 S viii., 268, 414: x. 333, 436, 526; xi. 78, 178.]
English Synonyms.—Californian widow; widow-bewitched; wife in water colours.
1700. Congreve, Way of the World, Act iii. If the worst come to the worst,—I'll turn my wife to grass—I have already a deed of settlement of the best part of her estate, which I wheedl'd out of her.
1877. Chamb. Journal, 12 Mar., p. 173. Mrs. Brittomart was one of those who never tolerated a bow-wow—a species of animal well known in India—and never went to the hills as a grass-widow.
1878. London, a grass-widow. And so, you see, it comes to pass That she's a widow out at grass And happy in her freedom.
1882. Saturday Review, 11 Feb. She is a grass-widow, her husband is something in some Indian service.
1885. W. Black, White Heather, ch. xli. Mrs. Lalor, a grass-widow who was kind enough to play chaperon to the young people, but whose effective black eyes had a little trick of roving on their own account.
1889. Daily Telegraph, 12 Feb. She had taken up her residence at a house in Sinclair-road, Kensington, where she passed as a grass-widow. She represented that her husband was engaged in mercantile pursuits.
Grass-widower, subs. (common).—A
man away from his wife.
1886. New York Evening Post, 22 May. All the grass-widowers and unmarried men.
Gravel, verb. (old).—1. To confound;
to puzzle; to floor
(q.v.).
1593. G. Harvey, Pierus Supererog, in wks. II., 296. The finest intelligencer, or sagest Politician in a state, would undoubtedly have been gravelled in the execution of that rash attempt.
1597. Hall, Satires, III., vi., 14. So long he drinks, till the black caravell Stands still fast gravelled on the mud of hell.
1600. Shakspeare, As You Like It. When you were gravelled for lack of matter.
1604. Marlowe, Faustus, Act i., Sc. 1. And I, that have with concise syllogisms gravell'd the pastors of the German church.
1659. Torriano, Vocabulario, s.v.
1667. Dryden, Sir Martin Marr-*all, Act iii. Warn. He's gravelled, and I must help him out.
1663. Dryden, An Evening's Love, Act ii. A difficult question in that art, which almost gravels me.
1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxxiv. He was somewhat gravelled for an answer to Alaric's earnest supplication, and therefore made none till the request was repeated.
1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 206. I thought Alan would be gravelled at that, for we lacked the means of writing in that desert.
1893. National Observer, 11 Feb, p. 321. In truth to talk of Burns as the apotheosis of Knox is really to gravel and confound your readers; and but for the context one might be suspected that the innuendo hid a touch of sarcasm.
2. (American).—To go against the grain.
1887. Clemens, Life on the Mississippi, ch. xiv., p. 138. By long habit, pilots came to put all their wishes in the form of commands. It gravels me to this day, to put my will in the weak shape of a request, instead of launching it in the crisp language of an order.
Gravel-crusher, subs. (military).—A
soldier doing defaulter's
drill.
Gravel-grinder, subs. (popular).—A
drunkard. For synonyms, see
Lushington.
