Pronounced /greɪv/ except for meaning 5, when it is pronounced /grɑ:v/.
( graver, gravest)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
A grave is a place where a dead person is buried.
They used to visit her grave twice a year.
N-COUNT
2.
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.
N-COUNT : oft to N , oft poss / adj N
3.
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.
ADJ
• grave‧ly
They had gravely impaired the credibility of the government.
ADV : ADV adj , ADV with v
4.
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...
ADJ
• grave‧ly
‘I think I’ve covered that business more than adequately,’ he said gravely.
ADV : ADV with v , ADV adj
5.
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 ‘mère’ has a grave accent over the first ‘e’.
ADJ : ADJ n
6.
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.
PHRASE : V and N inflect
7.
from the cradle to the grave: see cradle