grave

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“
Silent as a grave was the forest.

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Definitions (51)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (14)

  1. noun An excavation for the interment of a corpse.
  2. noun A place of burial.
  3. noun Death or extinction: faced the grave with calm resignation.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (24)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Examples (50)

  • A year later, Mozart was thrown with a number of paupers into a grave which is now as unknown as the grave of Moliere. —  Haydn
  • Almost immediately his grave was a place of pilgrimage and a succession of miracles occuring there led to his canonization. —  Wheat & Weeds
  • The torments of the grave are a very real doctrine that has the tendency to drive believers to despair - I have watched grown men and women on Arabic satellite relay the terror this doctrine has worked in their lives - making them eager to do whatever is necessary to avoid it. —  Writings from the Middle East Forum and Middle East Quarterly.
  • The torments of the grave are a reminder of how important it is to take Islam's doctrines - no matter how quaint or esoteric - seriously; dismissing them out of hand, since they seem silly to "us," is arrogance. —  Writings from the Middle East Forum and Middle East Quarterly.
  • The only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions —  Energy Bulletin -
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

serious ·  quiet ·  strange ·  profound ·  severe ·  deep

Used in the same contextWord Family

grave:   graven ·  graves ·  Graves
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (12)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. Middle English, from Old English græf; see ghrebh-2 in Indo-European roots.
  2. French, from Old French, from Latin gravis; see gwerə-1 in Indo-European roots.
  3. Middle English graven, from Old English grafan; see ghrebh-2 in Indo-European roots.
  4. Middle English graven.
  5. Italian, from Latin gravis, heavy; see grave2.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (7)

  1. from Middle English graven (preterit grof, grove, past participle graven, grave, rarely weak, graved), from Anglo-Saxon grafan (preterit grōf, plural grōfon, past participle grafen), dig, delve, bury, also carve, engrave (also in comp. āgrafan, inscribe, begrafan, bury), = Old Saxon *grabhan (only in comp. bigrabhan, bury, and in deriv. graf, a grave) = OFries. greva, grova = D. Middle Low German Low German graven, dig, delve (in comp. D. Middle Low German begraven, bury), = Old High German graban, Middle High German G. graben, dig, also cut, carve, engrave (G. in comp. eingraben, engrave, begraben, bury), = Icelandic grafa, dig, also carve, engrave, bury, = Swedish gräfva, dig (in comp. begrafva, bury), = Danish grave, dig (in comp. begrave, bury), = Gothic (Moesogothic) graban, dig (in comp. bigraban, surround with a trench). The Greek γράφειν, scratch, scrape, graze, later draw, write, inscribe (see graphic, gram, grammar, etc.), is supposed to be akin. In the sense ‘engrave’ the English word has merged with F. graver (later D. graveren = Danish gravere = Swedish gravera, engrave) = Spanish grabar = Portuguese gravar, from Middle Latin gravare, grave, engrave, of Teutonic origin, and not from the Greek word; cf. engrave. The Irish grafaim, I write, inscribe, scrape, Welsh crafu, scrape, scratch, are prob. of English origin. Hence grave, q. v.
  2. from Middle English grave, grafe (properly dative, the nominative graf producing English dial. and Scots graff: see graff), from Anglo-Saxon græf, graf (dative græfe, * grafe), a grave, also a trench (= Old Saxon graf = OFries. gref = Dutch graf = Middle Low German Low German graf, Middle Low German also grave = Old High German grab, Middle High German grap, German grab, neuter, a grave, = Icelandic gröf, feminine, a pit, hole, also a grave, = Swedish graf = Danish grav, a grave, = Gothic (Moesogothic) graba, feminine, a trench), from grafan (= Gothic (Moesogothic) graban, etc.), dig: see grave, v.
  3. from French grave = Spanish Portuguese Italian grave, from Latin gravis, heavy, weighty, deep, low, important, serious, etc., = Greek βαρύς, heavy (see barometer, barytone, etc.), = Sanskrit guru, heavy, important (see guru), = Goth, kaurs, heavy, burdensome. Hence (from Latin gravis) ult. gravity, gravous, grief, grieve, aggravate, aggredge, aggrieve, etc.
  4. from grave, a.
  5. More correctly greave; from graves, q. v.
  6. from Middle Dutch grave, graef, Dutch graaf = OFries. grēva, NFries. greafa = Middle Low German grēve, grāve, Low German greve, gräve, grebe (cf. Icelandic greifi = Swedish grefve = Danish greve, from Low German; and see greeve) = Old High German *grāfjō, grāvo, krāvjo, krāvo, garābo, gerābo, Middle High German grāve, græve, German graf (Middle Latin grafio, gravio, graphio), a count, prefect, governor, overseer (in Old High German also a surgeon): a name applied to various executive and judicial officers, and later as a title of rank; origin uncertain, the forms being indeterminate and their relation to the equivalent Anglo-Saxon gerēfa (later English reeve) doubtful. In one view, the word is derived from a lost verb represented by a deriv. in Gothic (Moesogothic) gagrēfts, gagreifts, a command; in another, the Teutonic forms are derived, through the Middle Latin graphio, in the literally sense ‘a writer’ hence ‘a notary public officer’ etc., like Middle Latin graphiarius, French greffier, a notary (see graff, greffier), from Greek γράφειν, write (see grave, graphic); and other derivations are suggested. In any case, the Anglo-Saxon gerēfa is unrelated, unless it stands for *grēfa: see greeve, reeve.
  7. Italian, heavy, slow, grave: see grave.
 

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/ˈgrɑvɛ/
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