Grave
WordNet
adjective
(1) 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"
(2) 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"
(3) 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"
noun
(4) 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"
(5) A mark (`) placed above a vowel to indicate pronunciation
(6) Death of a person
"He went to his grave without forgiving me"
"From cradle to grave"
verb
(7) Carve, cut, or etch into a material or surface
"Engrave a pen"
"Engraved the winner's name onto the trophy cup"
"The lovers scratched their names into the bark of the tree"
(8) 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"
WiktionaryText
Adjective
- Of great weight; heavy; ponderous.
- His shield grave and great. —Chapman.
- Of importance; momentous; weighty; influential; sedate; serious; said of character, relations, etc.; as, grave deportment, character, influence, etc.
- Most potent, grave, and reverend seigniors. —Shakespeare.
- A grave and prudent law, full of moral equity. —Milton.
- Not light or gay; solemn; sober; plain; as, a grave color; a grave face.
- Not acute or sharp; low; deep; -- said of sound; as, a grave note or key.
- The thicker the cord or string, the more grave is the note or tone. —Moore (Encyc. of Music).
- Slow and solemn in movement.
-
- {Grave accent}. (pronunciation) See the Note under Accent, n., 2.
Usage notes
{Grave}, {Sober}, {Serious}, {Solemn.} Sober supposes the absence of all exhilaration of spirits, and is opposed to gay or flighty; as, sober thought. Serious implies considerateness or reflection, and is opposed to jocose or sportive; as, serious and important concerns. Grave denotes a state of mind, appearance, etc., which results from the pressure of weighty interests, and is opposed to hilarity of feeling or vivacity of manner; as, a grave remark; grave attire. Solemn is applied to a case in which gravity is carried to its highest point; as, a solemn admonition; a solemn promise.
Synonyms
Noun
- An accent used in French, Italian and other languages. è is an e with a grave accent.
Verb
- To dig. Chaucer.
- He hath graven and digged up a pit. —Ps. VII 16 (Book of Prayer).
- To carve or cut, as letters or figures, on some hard substance; to engrave.
- To carve out or give shape to, by cutting with a chisel; to sculpture; as, to grave an image.
- With gold men may the hearte grave. —Chaucer.
- To impress deeply (on the mind); to fix indelibly.
- O! may they graven in thy heart remain. —Prior.
- To entomb; to bury. —Chaucer.
- Lie full low, graved in the hollow ground. —Shakespeare.
- 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.
- To write or delineate on hard substances, by means of incised lines; to practice engraving.
Noun
- An excavation in the earth as a place of burial; also, any place of interment; a tomb; a sepulcher. Hence: death; destruction.
Associated words:
grave-robbing - the stealing of a corpse or body parts from a grave;
grave-dancing - joy at another's demise or misfortune