GRAVE (graven)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: graven   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does grave mean? 

• GRAVE (noun)
  The noun GRAVE has 3 senses:

1. death of a person

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

3. a mark (') placed above a vowel to indicate pronunciation

  Familiarity information: GRAVE used as a noun is uncommon.

• GRAVE (adjective)
  The adjective GRAVE has 3 senses:

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

2. causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm

3. of great gravity or crucial import; requiring serious thought

  Familiarity information: GRAVE used as an adjective is uncommon.

• GRAVE (verb)
  The verb GRAVE has 2 senses:

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

2. carve, cut, or etch into a material or surface

  Familiarity information: GRAVE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRAVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Death of a person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

from cradle to grave

Hypernyms ("grave" is a kind of...):

death; demise; dying (the time when something ends)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

grave; tomb

Context example:

he put flowers on his mother's grave

Hypernyms ("grave" is a kind of...):

place; spot; topographic point (a point located with respect to surface features of some region)

Meronyms (parts of "grave"):

gravestone; headstone; tombstone (a stone that is used to mark a grave)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "grave"):

burial chamber; sepulcher; sepulchre; sepulture (a chamber that is used as a grave)

mastaba; mastabah (an ancient Egyptian mud-brick tomb with a rectangular base and sloping sides and flat roof)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A mark (') placed above a vowel to indicate pronunciation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

grave; grave accent

Hypernyms ("grave" is a kind of...):

accent; accent mark (a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation)

• GRAVE (adjective)

Comparative: graver   
Superlative: gravest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

grave; sedate; sober; solemn

Context example:

the judge was solemn as he pronounced sentence

Similar:

serious (concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities)

Derivation:

graveness; gravity (a manner that is serious and solemn)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm

Synonyms:

dangerous; grave; grievous; life-threatening; serious; severe

Context example:

a life-threatening disease

Similar:

critical (being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Of great gravity or crucial import; requiring serious thought

Synonyms:

grave; grievous; heavy; weighty

Context example:

the weighty matters to be discussed at the peace conference

Similar:

important; of import (of great significance or value)

Derivation:

graveness; gravity (a manner that is serious and solemn)

• GRAVE (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

grave; sculpt; sculpture

Context example:

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

Hypernyms (to "grave" is one way to...):

carve (form by carving)

Verb group:

sculpt; sculpture (create by shaping stone or wood or any other hard material)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Carve, cut, or etch into a material or surface

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

engrave; grave; inscribe; scratch

Context example:

the lovers scratched their names into the bark of the tree

Hypernyms (to "grave" is one way to...):

carve; chip at (engrave or cut by chipping away at a surface)

Verb group:

engrave; etch (carve or cut a design or letters into)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "grave"):

character (engrave or inscribe characters on)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

They were after the fashion of the kingdom, partly resembling the Persian, and partly the Chinese, and are a very grave and decent habit.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He was a man without a past, whose future was the imminent grave and whose present was a bitter fever of living.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Your English 'you' is so cold, say 'thou', heart's dearest, it means so much to me, pleaded Mr. Bhaer, more like a romantic student than a grave professor.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Meantime the countryman began to look grave, and shook his head.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

We realized that the orbit was going to carry Juno into Jupiter's shadow, which could have grave consequences because we're solar powered.

(NASA's Juno Navigators Enable Jupiter Cyclone Discovery, NASA)

All the old memories and associations died down again and passed into the grave from which they had been resurrected.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I observed all day that Mr. Murdstone was graver and steadier than the two gentlemen.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Hypercalcemia generally develops as a late complication of malignancy; its appearance has grave prognostic significance.

(Hypercalcemia of Malignancy, NCI Thesaurus)

I entered it and approached the tomb which marked their graves.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

When I looked up, on leaving his arms, there stood the widow, pale, grave, and amazed.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)