/ɡɹeɪv/, /ɡɹɑːv/
OriginFrom Middle English grave, grafe, from Old English græf, grafu (“cave, grave, trench”), from Proto-West Germanic *grab, from Proto-Germanic *grabą, *grabō (“grave, trench, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scratch, scrape”). Cognate with West Frisian grêf (“grave”), Dutch graf (“grave”), Low German Graf (“a grave”), Graff, German Grab (“grave”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian grav (“grave”), Icelandic gröf (“grave”). Related to groove.
- countable, uncountableAn excavation in the earth as a place of burial.
“He had lain in the grave four days.”
“Let mee not be ashamed, O Lord, for I haue called vpon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the graue.”
“They reached the cemetery. The men went right down to a place in the grass where a grave was dug. They ranged themselves all round; and while the priest spoke, the red soil thrown up at the sides kept”
- broadly, countable, uncountableAny place of interment.
- countable, uncountableAny place containing one or more corpses.
- broadly, uncountableDeath, destruction.
“[…]Meeting is pleasure, parting is a grief; / An inconstant lover is worse than a thief; / A thief can but rob you, and take all you have, / An inconstant lover will bring you to the grave![…]”
“[…]balanced on the biggest wave you race towards an early grave.”
- broadly, uncountableDeceased people; the dead.
“"Hold your jaw, woman! I've had enough to vex me to-day without you startin' your tantrums. You're jealous of the grave. That's wot's the matter with you." "And her brats can insult me as they like - ”
- A grave accent, the diacritic mark `.
- historicalA count, prefect, or person holding office.
- obsoleteA kilogram.
“At the origin of the metric system the new unit of weight was called the grave, and was equivalent to the kilogram. The denomination grave would in some respects have been preferable to kilogram.”
- obsolete, transitiveTo dig.
“He hath graven and digged up a pit.”
- intransitive, obsoleteTo carve or cut, as letters or figures, on some hard substance; to engrave.
“Thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel.”
“Deep lines were graven on her pale forehead, and on her wan, thin cheeks.”
“a. 1894, Robert Louis Stevenson, "Requiem"
This be the verse you grave for me / "Here he lies where he longs to be"”
- obsolete, transitiveTo carve out or give shape to, by cutting with a chisel; to sculpture.
- intransitive, obsoleteTo impress deeply (on the mind); to fix indelibly.
“O! may they graven in thy heart remain.”
- obsolete, transitiveTo entomb; to bury.
“[…]And lie full low, graved in the hollow ground.”
- intransitive, obsoleteTo write or delineate on hard substances, by means of incised lines; to practice engraving.
- obsolete, transitiveTo clean, as a vessel's bottom, of barnacles, grass, etc., and pay it over with pitch — so called because graves or greaves were formerly used for this purpose.
- Characterised by a dignified sense of seriousness; not cheerful.
“[Mercuti] Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.”
- Low in pitch, tone etc.
“The thicker the cord or string, the more grave is the note or tone.”
- Serious, in a negative sense; important, formidable.
“Israel’s behaviour is doing grave damage to the Palestinian people and to any hope for peace.”
“Khrushchev made a grave miscalculation when he failed to appreciate the growing opposition to his power and overestimated the support of his bureaucracy.”
- datedDull, produced in the middle or back of the mouth. (See Grave and acute on Wikipedia.Wikipedia)
- obsoleteInfluential, important; authoritative.
“An illiterate fool sits in a mans seat; and the common people hold him learned, grave, and wise.”
Formsgraves(plural) · graves(present, singular, third-person) · graving(participle, present) · graved(past) · graved(participle, past) · graven(participle, past) · graver(comparative) · gravest(superlative) · Graves(plural)