GRAVEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does graven mean? 

• GRAVEN (adjective)
  The adjective GRAVEN has 2 senses:

1. cut into a desired shape

2. cut or impressed into a surface

  Familiarity information: GRAVEN used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRAVEN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cut into a desired shape

Synonyms:

graven; sculpted; sculptured

Context example:

sculptured representations

Similar:

carved; carven (made for or formed by carving ('carven' is archaic or literary))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cut or impressed into a surface

Synonyms:

engraved; etched; graven; incised; inscribed

Context example:

engraved invitations

Similar:

carved; carven (made for or formed by carving ('carven' is archaic or literary))

 Context examples 

I remember something, too, of the green grave-mounds; and I have not forgotten, either, two figures of strangers straying amongst the low hillocks and reading the mementoes graven on the few mossy head-stones.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Another time they chanced upon the time-graven wreckage of a hunting lodge, and amid the shreds of rotted blankets John Thornton found a long-barrelled flint-lock.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

His idea was still with me, because it was not a vapour sunshine could disperse, nor a sand-traced effigy storms could wash away; it was a name graven on a tablet, fated to last as long as the marble it inscribed.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and, in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)