gravy

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A thick sauce made from the fat or juices that come out from meat or vegetables as they are being cooked.

   A roast dinner isn't complete without gravy.

2. 2
   noun

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   Unearned gain; extra benefit.

   The first thousand tickets and the concessions cover the venue and the band. The rest is gravy.

4. 4
   verb

   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 […]

5. 5
   noun

   the seasoned but not thickened juices that drip from cooking meats

6. 6
   noun

   a sauce made by adding stock, flour, or other ingredients to the juice and fat that drips from cooking meats

7. 7
   noun

   a sudden happening that brings good fortune (as a sudden opportunity to make money)

8. 8
   noun

   Sauce used for pasta.

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).