Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The juices that drip from cooking meat.
- n. A sauce made by thickening and seasoning these juices.
- n. Slang Money, profit, or benefit easily or illicitly gained.
- n. Slang Payment or benefit in excess of what is expected or required.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The fat and juices that drip from flesh in cooking; also, these juices made into a dressing for the meat when served.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable A thick sauce made from the fat or juices that come out from meat or vegetables as they are being cooked.
- n. countable A type of gravy.
- n. uncountable (among Italian-Americans) Sauce used for pasta.
- n. uncountable Unearned gain.
- n. uncountable Extra benefit.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The juice or other liquid matter that drips from flesh in cooking, made into a dressing for the food when served up.
- n. Liquid dressing for meat, fish, vegetables, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the seasoned but not thickened juices that drip from cooking meats; often a little water is added
- n. a sauce made by adding stock, flour, or other ingredients to the juice and fat that drips from cooking meats
- n. a sudden happening that brings good fortune (as a sudden opportunity to make money)
Etymologies
- From Middle English greavie; probably from greaves, graves, the sediment of melted tallow, from Old French. See greaves. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English grave, from Old French, possibly a misreading of grane, stew, sauce, from Latin grānātus, having many seeds; see pomegranate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Kouvalis, the man credited with parlaying the phrase "gravy train" to a Ford victory, has been meeting with lawyers over the past few weeks to ensure no one is violating campaign-financing legislation.”
“This classic combo of buckwheat groats, bowtie noodles and gravy, is incredibly simple to make when it it prepared as a side with a brisket in gravy.”
“The turkey was dry, and over-cooked, and I soon discovered that what we call gravy back in Jolly Old, was, in America, a white sauce made from a roux of butter, flour and milk.”
“And the English word gravy appears, derived apparently but mysteriously from the French grané.”
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“Outspoken South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in September that he was disappointed that the black-led government had failed to stop what he termed the gravy train set in motion by its apartheid predecessors.”
“The Jews rightly expound this law as forbidding only the blood of the life, as they express it, not that which we call the gravy, for of that they supposed it was lawful to eat.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume I (Genesis to Deuteronomy)
“The Italian surroundings did not rub off on this Irish-Swedish-American so I never spent all day stirring my homemade marinara, which they call gravy, by the way.”
“CARRIE JOHNSON: Local political candidates and religious leaders are sitting side by side at the Kankakee Country Club, digging into biscuits and gravy from the buffet and waiting for this annual prayer breakfast to begin.”
“Mashed potatoes are a great side dish any time, but are especially good when gravy is involved in a meal, which is why I always make sure that they make an appearance at my Thanksgiving dinner.”
“Those dinners are usually delicious, but not the traditional dinners from up north, usually sliced turkey smothered in gravy, no cranberry sauce, and pretty good pumpkin pie with a little drizzle of white cake frosting on it.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gravy’.
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Open List: Sauces
A list of sauces, used in cuisines around the world. Many of these are listed in the encyplopedic tome of French cookery, Larouse Gastronomique.
Be sure to visit Ruzuzu's savory list ...vinaigrette, hollandaise, mayonnaise, juniper berry and..., béarnaise, allemande, sauce suprême, tarragon sauce, ravigote sauce, vert-pré sauce, tortue sauce, béchamel and 118 more...
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Gobble
Dishes that are absolutely essential to my favorite holiday. And some musical instructions on how to make them (in the comments section).
turkey, cranberry sauce (..., mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes wi..., candied yams, parker house rolls, stuffing, gravy, whole cranberry s..., pumpkin pie, ambrosia salad, a lonely Thanksgi... and 2 more...
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kingofbash's Words
bash, poleaxed, salacious, libertine, charlatan, aplomb, fortuitous, finagle, apoplectic, debutante, carte blanche, aardvark and 472 more...
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spoon
being items relating to food, cooking and the kitchen.
spoon, fork, beef, slice, dozen, eggs, simmer, broil, salad, soup, stock, lard and 287 more...
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food
food, chef, spice, salt, sugar, pumpkin, apples, fruit, vegetable, savory, soup, sauce and 280 more...
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The History of Cool
Words that mean "cool" around the world and through the ages.
cool, awesome, wild, stylin', groovy, neat, nifty, swell, great, tubular, radical, bitchin' and 188 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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Food
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spaghetti, yogurt, muesli, rarebit, wheat, cream, cheese, pumpkin, custard, couscous, oats, sausage and 237 more...
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It was good enough for Billy Burroughs
smack, dope, junk, mud, h, skag, black tar, horse, brown sugar, chiva, boy, black and 237 more...
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miscellany
preposterous, minimalism, outnumbered, subroutine, malinger, oddity, eccentricity, laughable, oxymoronic, interstellar, winter, heedless and 335 more...
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is this all there is
this is it
dillema, destruction, conundrum, proxy, spurious, usurp, divulge, vapid, lucid, malicious, ubseqious, burden and 75 more...
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Show Me the Moolah
Slang terms (mostly American) for money.
dough, lettuce, moolah, rhino, spondulicks, buck, sawbuck, greenback, pony, c-note, grand, thou and 58 more...
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so near and yet so far
words that differ by only one letter, but which have quite different meanings
deadliness, headlines, grave, rave, grace, grape, graze, grate, gravy, bother, formication, fornication and 12 more...
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lclontz's Words
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JohnKarnay's list
Johnny's Token Words: A list of words that I find classy, humorous or just all together underplayed. Some may even be fictional but they work!
humongous, ginormous, ricoculous, gravy, affably, spanglish, lifer, herbvert, mommoocher, barnacles
Tweets
Looking for tweets for gravy.
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