grave

The definition of grave is something that is serious or taken seriously or doing something in a solemn or sedate manner.

(adjective)

Grave is defined as a location where a dead body is buried in the ground or a place where something that is broken is lying.

(noun)

An example of grave is a location in a cemetery where a dead person is buried and where a stone memorializes him.
An example of grave is when a boat sinks.

See grave in Webster's New World College Dictionary

1. requiring serious thought; important; weighty: grave doubts
2. not light or trifling in nature or in consequence; grievous: a grave sin
1. seriously threatening health, well-being, or life; critical; dangerous: a grave illness
2. seriously contrary to what is right or desirable; extremely bad: a grave fault
3. Theol. so evil as to cause spiritual death; mortal: a grave sin
dignified and solemn or sedate in manner or mien
somber; dull: grave colors
low or deep in pitch

Origin: Fr < L gravis, heavy, weighty < IE base *gwer-, heavy, mill > quern, Gr barys, heavy, Sans gurúh, grave

Related Forms:

noun

1. a hole in the ground in which to bury a dead body
2. any place of burial; tomb
final end or death; extinction

Origin: ME < OE græf (akin to OFris gref, Ger grab) < base of grafan, to dig: see gravethe

Origin: ME graven < OE grafan; akin to Ger graben < IE base *ghrebh-, to scratch, scrape

transitive verb graved, graving

to clean barnacles, etc. from (the hull of a wooden ship) and coat with pitch or tar

Origin: ME graven, prob. < OFr grave (Fr grève), beach, coarse sand (see gravel): ships were orig. beached for cleaning the hulls

adjective, adverb

Musical Direction slowly and with solemnity

Origin: It

See grave in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

Origin:

Origin: Middle English

Origin: , from Old English grǽf; see ghrebh-² in Indo-European roots

adjective grav·er, grav·est

Requiring serious thought; momentous: a grave decision in a time of crisis.
Fraught with danger or harm: a grave wound.
Dignified and somber in conduct or character: a grave procession. See Synonyms at serious.
Somber or dark in hue.
also (gräv) Linguistics
a. Written with or modified by the mark ( ` ), as the è in Sèvres.
b. 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.