grave

♦♦♦

graves, graver, gravest

(Pronounced [[t]gre͟ɪv[/t]], except for meaning 5, when it is pronounced [[t]grɑ͟ːv[/t]].)

1) N-COUNT A grave is a place where a dead person is buried.

They used to visit her grave twice a year.

2) N-COUNT: oft to N, oft poss/adj N You can refer to someone's death as their grave or to death as the grave.

...drinking yourself to an early grave...

Most men would rather go to the grave than own up to feelings of dependency.

3) ADJ-GRADED A grave event or situation is very serious, important, and worrying.

He said that the situation in his country is very grave...

I have grave doubts that the documents tell the whole story.

Derived words:

gravely ADV ADV adj, ADV with v

They had gravely impaired the credibility of the government.

4) ADJ-GRADED A grave person is quiet and serious in their appearance or behaviour.

William was up on the roof for some time and when he came down he looked grave...

Anxiously, she examined his unusually grave face.

Derived words:

gravely ADV-GRADED ADV with v, ADV adj

`I think I've covered that business more than adequately,' he said gravely.

5) ADJ: ADJ n In some languages such as French, a grave accent is a symbol that is placed over a vowel in a word to show how the vowel is pronounced. For example, the word `mere' has a grave accent over the first `e'.

6) PHRASE: V and N inflect If you say that someone is digging their own grave, you are warning them that they are doing something foolish or dangerous that will cause their own failure.

The magazine isn't trying to ruin his career, the man's digging his own grave by refusing an interview.

7) PHRASE: V and N inflect If you say that someone who is dead would turn in their grave at something that is happening now, you mean that they would be very shocked or upset by it, if they were alive.

Darwin must be turning in his grave at the thought of what is being perpetrated in his name.

8) from the cradle to the grave → see cradle