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.