Grave

English Meaning

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.

1. An excavation for the interment of a corpse.
2. A place of burial.
3. Death or extinction: faced the grave with calm resignation.
4. Requiring serious thought; momentous: a grave decision in a time of crisis.
5. Fraught with danger or harm: a grave wound.
6. Dignified and somber in conduct or character: a grave procession. See Synonyms at serious.
7. Somber or dark in hue.
8. Linguistics Written with or modified by the mark ( ` ), as the è in Sèvres.
9. Linguistics Of or referring to a phonetic feature that distinguishes sounds produced at the periphery of the vocal tract, as in labial and velar consonants and back vowels.
10. Linguistics A mark ( ` ) indicating a pronounced e for the sake of meter in the usually nonsyllabic ending -ed in English poetry.
11. To sculpt or carve; engrave.
12. To stamp or impress deeply; fix permanently.
13. To clean and coat (the bottom of a wooden ship) with pitch.
14. Music In a slow and solemn manner. Used chiefly as a direction.