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grave

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Grave, gravé, gravë, and -grave

English

 grave on Wikipedia

Pronunciation

  • enPR: grāv, IPA(key): /ɡɹeɪv/
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Rhymes: -eɪv
  • (accent, also): IPA(key): /ɡɹɑːv/

Etymology 1

From Middle English grave, grafe, from Old English græf, grafu (cave, grave, trench), from Proto-West Germanic *grab, from Proto-Germanic *grabą, *grabō (grave, trench, ditch), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (to dig, scratch, scrape). Cognate with West Frisian grêf (grave), Dutch graf (grave), Low German Graf (a grave), Graff, German Grab (grave), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian grav (grave), Icelandic gröf (grave). Related to groove.

Noun

grave (countable and uncountable, plural graves)

  1. (strictly) An excavation in the earth as a place of burial.
    Synonyms: plot, lot; see also Thesaurus:grave
    Coordinate terms: burial chamber, sepulchre, vault
  2. (loosely) Any place of interment.
    Hyponyms: burial chamber, sepulchre, vault
  3. (very loosely) Any place containing one or more corpses.
  4. (uncountable, by extension) Death, destruction.
  5. (by extension, uncountable) Deceased people; the dead.
    • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
      "Hold your jaw, woman! I've had enough to vex me to-day without you startin' your tantrums. You're jealous of the grave. That's wot's the matter with you." "And her brats can insult me as they like - me that 'as cared for you these five years."
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Sranan Tongo: grebi
Translations

See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English graven, from Old English grafan (to dig, dig up, grave, engrave, carve, chisel), from Proto-Germanic *grabaną (to dig), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (to dig, scratch, scrape). Cognate with Dutch graven (to dig), German graben (to dig), Danish grave (to dig), Swedish gräva (to dig), Icelandic grafa (to dig).

Verb

grave (third-person singular simple present graves, present participle graving, simple past graved, past participle graved or graven)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To dig.
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To carve or cut, as letters or figures, on some hard substance; to engrave.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To carve out or give shape to, by cutting with a chisel; to sculpture.
    to grave an image
  4. (intransitive, obsolete) To impress deeply (on the mind); to fix indelibly.
    • 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: [] Jacob Tonson [], and John Barber [], →OCLC, (please specify the page):
      O! may they graven in thy heart remain.
  5. (transitive, obsolete) To entomb; to bury.
  6. (intransitive, obsolete) To write or delineate on hard substances, by means of incised lines; to practice engraving.
Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle French grave, a learned borrowing from Latin gravis (heavy, important). Compare Old French greve (terrible, dreadful). Doublet of grief.

Adjective

grave (comparative graver, superlative gravest)

  1. Characterised by a dignified sense of seriousness; not cheerful. [from 16th c.]
    Synonyms: austere, solemn, sombre; see also Thesaurus:serious
  2. Low in pitch, tone etc. [from 17th c.]
    Antonyms: acute, deep, flat, low-pitched
    • 1854, John Weeks Moore, Encyclopedia of Music:
      The thicker the cord or string, the more grave is the note or tone.
  3. Serious, in a negative sense; important, formidable. [from 19th c.]
    Synonyms: serious, momentous, important; see also Thesaurus:important
    • 2016 February 6, James Zogby, “Israel’s prickliness blocks the long quest for peace”, in The National:
      Israel’s behaviour is doing grave damage to the Palestinian people and to any hope for peace.
    • 2017, Vladimir Shlapentokh, A Normal Totalitarian Society, page 80:
      Khrushchev made a grave miscalculation when he failed to appreciate the growing opposition to his power and overestimated the support of his bureaucracy.
  4. (phonology, dated, of a sound) Dull, produced in the middle or back of the mouth. (See Grave and acute on Wikipedia.Wikipedia )
    Coordinate term: acute
  5. (obsolete) Influential, important; authoritative. [16th–18th c.]
    Synonyms: magisterial, masterful, oracular, sterling
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: [], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: [] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 7:
      An illiterate fool sits in a mans seat; and the common people hold him learned, grave, and wise.
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

grave (plural graves)

  1. A grave accent, the diacritic mark `.
Translations

Etymology 4

Inherited from Middle English greyve. Doublet of graaf (borrowed from the Dutch cognate graaf (count, earl)) and graf (borrowed from the German cognate Graf (count, earl)).

Noun

grave (plural graves)

  1. (historical) A count, prefect, or person holding office.

Etymology 5

Verb

grave (third-person singular simple present graves, present participle graving, simple past and past participle graved)

  1. (transitive, obsolete, nautical) To clean, as a vessel's bottom, of barnacles, grass, etc., and pay it over with pitch — so called because graves or greaves were formerly used for this purpose.

Etymology 6

Noun

grave (plural graves)

  1. (obsolete) A kilogram.
    • 1899, John Sturgeon Mackay, Arithmetic Theoretical and Practical, page 117:
      At the origin of the metric system the new unit of weight was called the grave, and was equivalent to the kilogram. The denomination grave would in some respects have been preferable to kilogram.

Anagrams

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Danish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡraːvə/, [ˈɡ̊ʁɑːvə]

Etymology 1

From Italian grave, from Latin gravis (heavy, grave).

Adverb

grave

  1. (music) grave (low in pitch, tone etc.)
  2. accent graveaccent grave, grave accent

Etymology 2

From Old Norse grafa (to dig, bury), from Proto-Germanic *grabaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrābʰ- (to dig, scratch, scrape).

Verb

grave (imperative grav, infinitive at grave, present tense graver, past tense gravede, perfect tense har gravet)

  1. dig (to move hard-packed earth out of the way)
Derived terms
digging

Etymology 3

See grav (grave, tomb, pit).

Noun

grave c

  1. indefinite plural of grav
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Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

grave

  1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of graven

Anagrams

Esperanto

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡrave/
  • Rhymes: -ave
  • Hyphenation: gra‧ve

Adverb

grave

  1. seriously, gravely

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡʁav/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio (France (Toulouse)):(file)
  • Audio (France (Vosges)):(file)
  • Audio (France (Vosges)):(file)
  • Audio (France (Lyon)):(file)

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle French grave, borrowed from Latin gravis. Doublet of grief.

Adjective

grave (plural graves)

  1. serious
  2. solemn
  3. low-pitched
    Antonym: aigu
  4. (phonetics) back
    • 1911, Diran Kélékian, “grave”, in Dictionnaire turc-français, Constantinople: Mihran, Quelques mots sur la pronunciation des lettres Turques:
      Quatre de ces voyelles sont graves: a, o, u, œu.
      Four of these are vowels are back [vowels], a, o, u, [and] œu
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Norwegian Bokmål: grave

Adverb

grave

  1. (informal, slang) much; a lot
    Je te kiffe grave !
    I love you like crazy!

Etymology 2

Verb

grave

  1. inflection of graver:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

Anagrams

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin gravis. Doublet of greve.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡra.ve/
  • Rhymes: -ave
  • Hyphenation: grà‧ve

Adjective

grave m or f (plural gravi, superlative gravissimo)

  1. grave, serious
    un grave problema
    a serious problem
  2. heavy
  3. solemn
  4. (music) low-pitched, low-pitch

Synonyms

Antonyms

Descendants

Anagrams

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Latin

Adjective

grave

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of gravis

References

  • "grave", in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • "grave", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • "grave", in The Perseus Project (1999), Perseus Encyclopedia
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Middle English

Etymology 1

From the dative of Old English græf, from Proto-West Germanic *grab, from Proto-Germanic *grabą.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡraːv(ə)/, /ˈɡrav(ə)/, /ˈɡraf/

Noun

grave (plural graves)

  1. grave, burial
  2. tomb, mausoleum
Derived terms
Descendants
References

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡraːvɛi̯/, /ˈɡraːveː/

Noun

grave

  1. alternative form of gravey

Etymology 3

Noun

grave

  1. (Late Middle English) alternative form of greyve

Etymology 4

Noun

grave

  1. (Early Middle English) alternative form of grove

Etymology 5

Verb

grave

  1. alternative form of graven
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Middle French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old French grave.

Noun

grave f (plural graves)

  1. gravel

Descendants

References

  • Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (grave)

Middle High German

Etymology

Inherited from Old High German grāfo, grāvo, grāfio, grāvio (count, local judge).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (before 13th CE) /ˈɡraːvə/, /ˈɡraːfə/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

grāve m

  1. count, local judge

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

References

  • grâve” Benecke, Georg Friedrich, Wilhelm Müller, and Friedrich Zarncke. Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch: mit benutzung des Nachlasses von Benecke. Vol. 1. S. Hirzel, 1863.
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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Old Norse grafa, from Proto-Germanic *grabaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrābʰ- (to dig, scratch, scrape).

Verb

grave (imperative grav, present tense graver, passive graves, simple past gravde or grov, past participle gravd, present participle gravende)

  1. to dig
    grave utto excavate

Etymology 2

From French grave (serious, low-pitched; back), from Middle French grave, from Old French grave, from Latin gravis (heavy, grave, serious), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (heavy), from *gʷreh₂- (heavy) + *-us (forms adjectives).

Pronunciation

Noun

grave m (definite singular graven, indefinite plural graver, definite plural gravene)

  1. only used in accent grave (grave accent)

References

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

grave (present tense grev, past tense grov, past participle grave, passive infinitive gravast, present participle gravande, imperative grav)

  1. alternative form of grava

Derived terms

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Medieval Latin grava, from Gaulish *grawa, *growa, from Proto-Celtic *grāwā, related to Cornish grow (gravel), Breton grouan, and Welsh gro (gravel); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰr-eu-d-.

Noun

grave oblique singular, f (oblique plural graves, nominative singular grave, nominative plural graves)

  1. gravel

Descendants

References

  • Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (grave)

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 
 

Etymology 1

From Old Galician-Portuguese grave, from Latin gravis (heavy; grave), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us.

Adjective

grave m or f (plural graves, comparable, comparative mais grave, superlative o mais grave or gravíssimo)

  1. serious; grave (having possible severe negative consequences)
    Synonyms: sério, severo
    Sofria de uma doença grave.
    He suffered from a serious disease.
  2. (of sound) low-pitched; grave (low in pitch or tone)
    Synonym: baixo
    Antonym: agudo
    O som da tuba é mais grave do que o do trombone.
    The sound of the tuba has a lower pitch than that of the trombone.
  3. grave; serious; sombre; austere; solemn (characterised by a dignified sense of seriousness)
    Synonyms: sério, austero, circunspecto, sisudo, solene
    O programa tinha um tom grave.
    The program had a serious tone.
  4. (physics) that falls down; that doesn’t float
    O balão não é um corpo grave.
    Balloons are not a falling body.
Derived terms

Noun

grave m (plural graves)

  1. (music) a low-pitched note
  2. (physics) a body that falls down

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

grave

  1. inflection of gravar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Italian grave.

Adjective

grave

  1. inflection of grav:
    1. genitive/dative feminine singular/plural
    2. nominative/accusative neuter plural

Adverb

grave

  1. grave

Spanish

Swedish

West Frisian

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