# grave

Pronunciation: say "GRAYV" /ɡɹeɪv/

## Noun

1. A place where a dead body is buried, especially a hole dug in the ground; also any place where the dead lie.
   - Simple: A place where a dead person is buried, usually a hole in the ground.
   - _Every Sunday she brings fresh flowers to her mother's grave._
   - _The soldiers' graves are marked with simple white crosses._
3. Death; the state of being destroyed or brought to an end.
   - Simple: Death, or the end of something.
   - _Famine carried half the village to the grave that winter._
   - _His reckless lifestyle hurried him toward an early grave._
5. Those who have died, considered collectively; the dead.
   - Simple: People who have died, thought of as a group.
6. A diacritical mark written as a small backward-leaning stroke above a letter, as in 'è'. (pronounced: US say "GRAYV" /ɡɹeɪv/; UK say "GRAHV" /ɡɹɑːv/)
   - Simple: The small backward-slanting mark written above a letter, as in 'à'.
   - _The proofreader noticed that a grave was missing from the final syllable._
   - _French places a grave over certain vowels to mark their quality._

## Adjective

2. Serious in a negative way; important and threatening enough to cause concern.
   - Simple: Very serious in a bad way, often meaning dangerous or worrying.
   - _The region faces a grave threat from the spreading wildfire._
   - _Economists warned of grave consequences if the bank were to collapse._
4. Showing a dignified, serious manner rather than a cheerful or lighthearted one.
   - Simple: Acting serious and calm, not cheerful or joking.
   - _She gave a grave nod before reading out the difficult verdict._
   - _His tone grew grave as he described the family's loss._
7. Low in pitch or tone, as a deep sound.
   - Simple: Low and deep in pitch or sound.
   - _A grave hum rose from the bass strings of the cello._
   - _The tuba's grave notes anchored the lower register of the orchestra._

## Verb

8. To carve or engrave letters, figures, or shapes in a hard material. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To cut words or shapes into stone, metal, or wood.
9. To impress something deeply on the mind; to fix it there indelibly. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To press something deep into someone's mind so that it stays there.
10. To place a body in a tomb or the ground; to inter or bury. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To bury a dead person in the ground or a tomb.
11. To break up and remove earth by digging; to excavate. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To make a hole or trench in the ground by digging.
14. To clean a ship's bottom of barnacles, weed, and other growth, then coat it with pitch. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To clean the bottom of a ship and then coat it with tar.

## Adjective

12. Influential and important; carrying authority and commanding the respect of others. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Having great power and importance, with the right to be obeyed.

## Noun

13. An early metric unit of mass equal to one kilogram. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An old unit of weight equal to one kilogram.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A count, prefect, or other person holding governing office over a town or territory.
- (adjective) Of a speech sound: having a dull, low-frequency quality, as back vowels and consonants made with the lips or soft palate do; opposed to acute.
- (adverb) Very slowly and with solemnity, as a marking that instructs performers on the tempo and character of a musical passage.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3, 5** — From Middle English grave, from Old English græf, grafu ("cave, grave, trench"), going back through Proto-Germanic to the Proto-Indo-European root *gʰrebʰ- ("to dig, scratch, scrape"). It is related to Dutch graf, German Grab, and to the word groove.
**Meanings 8–11** — From Middle English graven, from Old English grafan ("to dig, engrave, carve, chisel"), from Proto-Germanic *grabaną ("to dig") and the Proto-Indo-European root *gʰrebʰ- ("to dig, scratch, scrape"). It is cognate with Dutch graven and German graben ("to dig").
**Meanings 2, 4, 6–7, 12** — English acquired grave through Middle French, which had adopted Latin gravis ("heavy, important") as a learned word. Grave and grief are doublets. The musical direction entered English from Italian grave, which also comes from Latin gravis.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/grave (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).