Definitions for grave
ˈgrɑ veɪgrave

Princeton's WordNet(4.33 / 3 votes)Rate this definition:

1. gravenoun

   death of a person

   "he went to his grave without forgiving me"; "from cradle to grave"

2. grave, tombnoun

   a place for the burial of a corpse (especially beneath the ground and marked by a tombstone)

   "he put flowers on his mother's grave"

3. grave accent, graveadjective

   a mark (`) placed above a vowel to indicate pronunciation

4. grave, sedate, sober, solemnadjective

   dignified and somber in manner or character and committed to keeping promises

   "a grave God-fearing man"; "a quiet sedate nature"; "as sober as a judge"; "a solemn promise"; "the judge was solemn as he pronounced sentence"

5. dangerous, grave, grievous, serious, severe, life-threateningadjective

   causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm

   "a dangerous operation"; "a grave situation"; "a grave illness"; "grievous bodily harm"; "a serious wound"; "a serious turn of events"; "a severe case of pneumonia"; "a life-threatening disease"

6. grave, grievous, heavy, weightyverb

   of great gravity or crucial import; requiring serious thought

   "grave responsibilities"; "faced a grave decision in a time of crisis"; "a grievous fault"; "heavy matters of state"; "the weighty matters to be discussed at the peace conference"

7. sculpt, sculpture, graveverb

   shape (a material like stone or wood) by whittling away at it

   "She is sculpting the block of marble into an image of her husband"

8. scratch, engrave, grave, inscribeverb

   carve, cut, or etch into a material or surface

   "engrave a pen"; "engraved the trophy cupt with the winner's"; "the lovers scratched their names into the bark of the tree"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Grave

   Etymology: a final syllable in the names of places, is from the Saxon græf , a grove or cave. Edmund Gibson Camden.

2. Graveadjective

   Etymology: grave, French; gravis, Latin.

   1. Solemn; serious; sober; not gay; not light or trifling.

   To th’ more mature,
   A glass that featur’d them; and to the grave,
   A child that guided dotards. William Shakespeare, Cymbeline.

   We should have else desir’d
   Your good advice, which still hath been both grave
   And prosperous, in this day’s council. William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

   That grave awfulness, as in your best breed of mastives, or elegancy and prettiness, as in your lesser dogs, are modes of beauty. Henry More, Antidote against Atheism.

   Even the grave and serious characters are distinguished by their several sorts of gravity. John Dryden, Fables, Preface.

   Youth on silent wings is flown;
   Graver years come rolling on. Matthew Prior.

   To laugh, were want of goodness and of grace;
   And to be grave, exceeds all pow’r of face. Alexander Pope, Epistles.

   Folly-painting humour, grave himself,
   Calls laughter forth. James Thomson, Winter.

   2. Of weight; not futile; credible. Little used.

   The Roman state was of all others the most celebrated for their virtue, as the gravest of their own writers, and of strangers, do bear them witness. Nehemiah Grew, Cosmol. Sac. b. iii. c. 3.

   3. Not showy; not tawdry: as, a grave suit of cloaths.4. Not sharp of sound; not acute.

   Accent, in the Greek names and usage, seems to have regarded the tone of the voice; the acute accent raising the voice, in some certain syllables, to a higher, i. e. more acute pitch or tone, and the grave depressing it lower, and both having some emphasis, i. e. more vigorous pronunciation. William Holder, Elements of Speech.

3. GRAVEnoun

   The place in the ground in which the dead are reposited.

   Etymology: græf, Saxon.

   Now it is the time of night,
   That the graves, all gaping wide,
   Every one lets forth his spright,
   In the church-way paths to glide. William Shakespeare.

   Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave. John Milton.

   To walk upon the graves of our dead masters,
   Is our own security. John Denham, Sophy.

   A flood of waters would overwhelm all those fragments which the earth broke into, and bury in one common grave all mankind, and all the inhabitants of the earth. Burnet.

4. To GRAVEverb

   preter. graved; part. pass. graven.

   Etymology: graver, French; γϱάφω.

   1. To insculp; to carve a figure or inscription in any hard substance.

   Cornice with bossy sculptures graven. John Milton.

   Such later vows, oaths, or leagues can never blot out those former gravings or characters, which by just and lawful oaths were made upon their souls. Charles I .

   Thy sum of duty let two words contain;
   O! may they graven in thy heart remain,
   Be humble and be just. Matthew Prior.

   2. To carve or form.

   What profiteth the graven image, that the maker thereof hath graven it? Heb. ii. 18.

   3. To copy paintings upon wood or metal, in order to be impressed on paper.

   The gravers can and ought to imitate the bodies of the colours by the degrees of the lights and shadows: ’tis impossible to give much strength to what they grave, after the works of the schools, without imitating in some sort the colour of the objects. John Dryden, Dufresnoy.

   4. [From grave.] To entomb. Not in use.

   There’s more gold:
   Do you damn others, and let this damn you:
   And ditches grave you all! William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens.

   5. To clean, caulk, and sheath a ship.

   Robert Ainsworth.

5. To Graveverb

   To write or delineate on hard substances.

   Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it. Ex. xxviii. 36.

Webster Dictionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Graveverb

   to clean, as a vessel's bottom, of barnacles, grass, etc., and pay it over with pitch; -- so called because graves or greaves was formerly used for this purpose

2. Grave

   of great weight; heavy; ponderous

3. Grave

   of importance; momentous; weighty; influential; sedate; serious; -- said of character, relations, etc.; as, grave deportment, character, influence, etc

4. Grave

   not light or gay; solemn; sober; plain; as, a grave color; a grave face

5. Grave

   not acute or sharp; low; deep; -- said of sound; as, a grave note or key

6. Grave

   slow and solemn in movement

7. Gravenoun

   to dig. [Obs.] Chaucer

8. Gravenoun

   to carve or cut, as letters or figures, on some hard substance; to engrave

9. Gravenoun

   to carve out or give shape to, by cutting with a chisel; to sculpture; as, to grave an image

10. Gravenoun

    to impress deeply (on the mind); to fix indelibly

11. Gravenoun

    to entomb; to bury

12. Graveverb

    to write or delineate on hard substances, by means of incised lines; to practice engraving

13. Gravenoun

    an excavation in the earth as a place of burial; also, any place of interment; a tomb; a sepulcher. Hence: Death; destruction

14. Etymology: [AS. gr?f, fr. grafan to dig; akin to D. & OS. graf, G. grab, Icel. grf, Russ. grob' grave, coffin. See Grave to carve.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Grave

   A grave is a location where a dead body is buried. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries. Certain details of a grave, such as the state of the body found within it and any objects found with the body, may provide information for archaeologists about how the body may have lived before its death, including the time period in which it lived and the culture that it had been a part of. In some religions, it is believed that the body must be burned for the soul to survive; in others, the complete decomposition

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Grave

   grāv, v.t. to carve or cut on a hard substance: to engrave.—v.i. to engrave:—pa.p. graved or grāv′en.—n. a pit graved or dug out, esp. one in which to bury the dead: any place of burial: the abode of the dead: (fig.) death: destruction.—n.pl. Grave′-clothes, the clothes in which the dead are buried.—n. Grave′-dig′ger, one who digs graves.—adj. Grave′less (Shak.), without a grave, unburied.—ns. Grave′-mak′er (Shak.), a grave-digger; Grave′-stone, a stone laid over, or placed at the head of, a grave as a memorial; Grave′yard, a yard or enclosure used as a burial-ground.—With one foot in the grave, on the very borders of death. [A.S. grafan; Dut. graven, Ger. graben; Gr. graphein, to scratch, L. scribĕre, to write.]

2. Grave

   grāv, v.t. to smear with graves or greaves, a mixture of tallow, rosin, &c. boiled together.—ns.pl. Graves, Greaves, tallow-drippings. [See Greaves.]

3. Grave

   grāv, adj. of importance: serious: not gay or showy: sober: solemn; weighty: (mus.) not acute: low.—n. the grave accent, or its sign (`).—adv. Grave′ly.—n. Grave′ness. [Fr.,—L. gravis.]

4. Grave

   grāv, n. a count, prefect, a person holding office, as in landgrave, margrave, burgrave, &c. [Dut. graaf, Ger. graf.]

Suggested Resources(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. grave

   Song lyrics by grave -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by grave on the Lyrics.com website.

Matched Categories

1. • Carve
   • Death
   • Topographic Point

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'grave' in Nouns Frequency: #1944

How to pronounce grave?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say grave in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of grave in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of grave in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of grave in a Sentence

1. Marco Rubio:

   And given their history of repression, Chinese troops massed on border is cause for grave concern.

2. Jim Emison:

   The main reason we’ve got to tell this story is to be honest with ourselves about what we are, and when you dig into this you begin to understand the depths of the wounds this inflicted and those wounds don’t go to the grave with Elbert Williams’ generation … they live on. Whatever the result, legally we think that the investigation itself is a great positive and that the end result will be a reconciliation.

3. Curtis Sliwa:

   To defund the police, take guns from police, and blame police for the growing crime problem is to render the police into a Reactive and not a Proactive force. This is not Nirvana. The followers of AOC, better known as All Out Crazy, want to weaken policing even more. The Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt, the Father of modern day policing, is probably turning in his grave as these events unfold.

4. Bhartrihari:

   Hark! here the sound of lute so sweet, And there the voice of wailing loud; Here scholars grave in conclave meet, There howls the brawling drunken crowd; Here, charming maidens full of glee, There, tottering, withered dames we see. Such light! Such shade! I cannot tell, If here we live in heaven or hell.

5. Alexander Smith:

   Every man's road in life is marked by the grave of his personal likings.

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