| 释义 |
▪ I. grave, n.1|greɪv|
Forms: 1 græf, 4–6 graf(e, 5, 8–9 Sc. graff, (4 greve, 5 grawe, 6 Sc. graif, graiwe), 3– grave.
[OE. græf str. neut. = OFris. gref, OS. graf, OHG. grap:—OTeut. type *graƀom; a parallel type is *graƀâ fem., represented by ON. grǫf (Da. grav, Sw. graf), Goth. graba; f. root of OE. grafan to dig, grave v.1
The normal mod. representative of OE. græf would be graff; the ME. disyllabic grave, from which the standard mod. form descends, was prob. due to the especially frequent occurrence of the word in the dat. (locative) case.]
1. a. A place of burial; an excavation in the earth for the reception of a corpse; † formerly often applied loosely to a receptacle for the dead not formed by digging, as a mausoleum.
a1000Seafarer 97 (Gr.) Þeah þe græf wille golde streᵹan broþor his ᵹeborenum. c1250Gen. & Ex. 3184 Oc ðe ail haueð so wide spiled, ðat his [Joseph's] graue is ðor vnder hiled. a1300Cursor M. 21063 First he did his graf to deluen. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 290 To þat stede he ferd, þer he was laid in graue. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 903 Thisbe, We preyen yow..That in o graue y-fere we moten lye. a1400–50Alexander 4451 Graffis garnyscht of gold & gilten tombis. c1440Promp. Parv. 207/2 Grave, solempnely made, or gravyn..mausoleum. c1460Towneley Myst. xxvi. 54 Dede men also rose vp sone, Outt of thare grafe. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 594 He..With all honour wnto his graif is gone. 1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Burial Dead, When they come at the graue. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 387 The graues, all gaping wide, Euery one lets forth his spright. 1607Dekker Roaring Girle Wks. 1873 III. 107, I must not to my graue, As a drunkard to his bed. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 58 When the Grave is filled up, they erect a stone. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 97 Here in one grave are deposited the remains of Constantia..and..her daughter. 1794Burns ‘O Death, hadst thou but spar'd his life’, E'en as he is, cauld in his graff. 1821Byron Cain iii. i, Compose thy limbs into their grave. 1861Wright Ess. Archæol. I. vii. 142 The Anglo-Saxons..dug a rather deep rectangular grave..often of considerable dimensions. a1876G. Dawson Lect. Shaks. etc. (1888) 62 When your grave comes to be dug, will the diggers weep?
transf.1590Spenser F.Q. iii. x. 42 We will blyndfolded ly, Ne privy bee unto your treasures grave.
†b. holy grave = Holy Sepulchre.
a1455Holland Houlate xxxv, The haily graif. Ibid. xxxvii, The haly graf. 1481Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 108, I wyl goo for you to the holy graue. c15111st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 31/2 They seke the holy graue to Iherusalem.
c. A grave-mound. Also transf., dead men's graves (see quot.).
1868Dickens Uncomm. Trav. xxi, Gravely making hay among the graves. 1869R. B. Smyth Goldf. Victoria 609 Dead-men's Graves, applied to country generally basaltic, where, owing to the unequal decomposition of the under⁓lying rock, humps like graves occur.
d. In various fig. and proverbial expressions. † into the grave of hell: into the lowest depth. secret as the grave: kept as a close secret. to make a person turn in his grave: said fancifully or hyperbolically of the effect of something which was abhorrent to the person in his lifetime. some one is walking over my grave (see quot. 1868). one foot in the grave (see foot n. 26 a.) to dig the grave of: to cause the ruin, downfall, end of (a person or thing).
c1585Cartwright in R. Browne Answ. Cartwright 88 It shoulde followe that that assembly..shoulde from the hyest heauen fall into the graue of hell. 1738Swift Pol. Conversat. i. 84 Miss [shuddering]. Lord! there's somebody walking over my Grave. 1832L. Hunt Sir R. Esher (1850) 89 The correspondence I kept as secret as the grave. 1859H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xxxi. (1860) 268 Sometimes somebody would walk over my grave, and give me a creeping in the back. 1868Holme Lee B. Godfrey xiv. 77 Joan shuddered —that..convulsive shudder which old wives say is caused by a footstep walking over the place of our grave that shall be. 1883Harper's Mag. Apr. 768/1 Somebody's walking over your grave, they say, when you feel so. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. I. xii. 159 Jefferson might turn in his grave if he knew of such an attempt to introduce European distinctions of rank into his democracy. 1934F. Scott Fitzgerald Let. 8 Dec. (1963) 397 Of course any apologia is necessarily a whine to some extent; a man digs his own grave and should, presumably, lie in it. 1963Listener 31 Jan. 207/2 The delegation called for the convening of a conference next month to ‘dig the grave’ of the Federation.
e. with omission of the article (after a prep.).
1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Luke xx. 38 Now wer Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at that tyme alreadie buiried in graue. 1662Hickeringill Serm. Wks. 1716 I. 286 Few or none went down to Grave in peace.
2. a. Regarded as the natural destination or final resting-place of every one. Hence sometimes put for: The condition or state of being dead, death. † to the grave: till death. (to bear a mark) to one's grave: all one's life. to find one's grave: to meet one's death.
c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 17 Crist sparid not to visyte pore men..in þe colde greue. 14..Songs & Carols 15th C. (Percy Soc.) 66 Thei wyl gyffe a man a mark that he xal ber it to hys grafe. 1535Coverdale Gen. xlii. 38 Yf eny mysfortune shulde happen vnto him..ye shulde bringe my graye hayre with sorowe downe vnto the graue. 1624Quarles Job vi. 39 Both Rich and Poore are equal'd in the Grave. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 168 My course came next, though not to die, yet to goe neere the Grave. 1656–9B. Harris Parival's Iron Age (ed. 2) 244 France, where he soon found his grave. 1674tr. Martiniere's Voy. N. Countries 113 And thinking by bleeding and purgation to recover their Patients, sent many of them to the Grave. 1707Watts Hymn, ‘Life is the time to serve the Lord’, There are no Acts of Pardon pass'd In the cold Grave to which we haste. 1723Pres. State Russia II. 129, I am, to the Grave, full of good Wishes towards you. 1726Swift Gulliver iv. xi, The Savages..discharged an Arrow, which wounded me deeply on the inside of my left Knee (I shall carry the Mark to my Grave). 1726Dyer Grongar Hill 92 Between the cradle and the grave. 1738Wesley Psalms vi. iii, I cannot thank Thee in the Grave. 1750Gray Elegy ix, The path of glory leads but to the grave. 1815Shelley Alastor 720 Birth and the grave, that are not as they were.
b. with personification: = Death or Hades.
1611Bible Hosea xiii. 14 O death, I will be thy plagues, O graue [Wyclif, Coverdale hell(e], I will be thy destruction. Ibid. 1 Cor. xv. 55. 1615 Cleaver Proverbs 175 No might..can rescue him out of the hand of the graue.
3. In enlarged rhetorical use: Anything that is, or may become, the receptacle of what is dead. So liquid grave, watery grave.
1559Mirr. Mag., Jack Cade xxi, Than were on poales my parboylde quarters pight, And set aloft for vermine to deuower, Meete graue for rebels that resist the power. 1632Lithgow Trav. vii. 326 Their dead Corpes were cast over Board, in a boundlesse grave to feed the fishes. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. iii. §15 Ptolemais (the Grave General of the Christian Army). 1821Byron Heaven & Earth i. iii, Not even a rock from out the liquid grave. 1865Kingsley Herew. vi. 127 They had only just escaped a watery grave. 1874L. Carr Jud. Gwynne I. vi. 170 He had carried her..out of a grave of fire. 1895Maguire in United Service Mag. July 373 The country between the Balkans and Constantinople would have been the grave of the entire Russian Army. 1898J. R. Illingworth Divine Immanence vi. 137 The body ceases to be the spirit's organ, and becomes first its prison, and then its grave.
4. An excavation of any kind; a pit or trench. Obs. exc. in sense of a trench for earthing up potatoes and other roots.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 276 b, It is wryten in the lawe of Moyses That no man sholde dyg ony pyt, or open ony graue or cesterne, but he sholde couer it agayne..lest [etc.]. 1847Halliwell, Grave,..a potato-hole. Linc. 1857Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XVIII. i. 108 Potatoes are brought out of the ‘hogs’, or ‘graves’, or ‘pits’. 1890Morning Post 26 Dec. 6/2 The mangold and potato graves have also suffered considerably.
5. attrib. and Comb.
a. simple attributive, as grave-brass, grave-clod, grave-field, grave-garth, grave-ground, grave-group, grave-hill, grave-lid, grave-linen, grave-mound, † grave-neighbour, grave-place, grave-rail, grave-side (also attrib.), grave-slab, grave-stead, grave-worm; grave-like adj.b. objective, as grave-maker, grave-raker, grave-robber; grave-digging (cf. grave-digger), grave-making, grave-robbing vbl. ns.c. adverbial (of destination) and instrumental, as grave-bound, grave-riven adjs.d. locative or originative, as grave-interment; grave-born adj.
1596Drayton Mortimeriados 34 Lyke *graue-borne gosts, amaz'd and mad with feare.
1825D. L. Richardson Sonnets 10 The *grave-bound Pilgrim never can return.
1849Rock Ch. of Fathers I. ii. 187 Our old English *grave-brasses.
1847Craig, *Graveclod, a lump of earth belonging to a grave.
1749Fielding Tom Jones xvi. v, The *grave-digging scene next engaged the attention of Partridge.
1868G. Stephens Runic Monuments 1026/1 *Grave⁓fields. 1937Jrnl. R. Anthrop. Inst. 233 To point out to me the sight of the grave-field. 1963Times Lit. Suppl. 18 Jan. 44/2 The Viking character of the Gnezdovo grave⁓field.
1880Rossetti Ballads & Sonn. 273 As in a *gravegarth, count to see The monuments of memory.
1874Green Short Hist. i. §2. 9 The *grave-ground of Addington.
1937Jrnl. R. Anthrop. Inst. 232 Nothing is said as to the original composition of the *grave-groups.
a1835Mrs. Hemans Song of Tomb Poems (1875) 340 He must ride o'er the *grave-hills..with stormy speed. 1894Atkinson Old Whitby 62, I have taken 3 axe-hammers from grave-hills on the Danby and Skelton moors.
1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. Introd. i. 3 Poppæa, the wife of Nero, found a peculiar *grave enterment.
c1340Cursor M. 14332 (Trin.) Þe *graue lid awey þei kist.
1764Oxford Sausage 63 O haste thee from thy *grave-like Grot! 1847De Quincey Secret Societies Wks. 1863 VI. 269 You may sit in that deep grave-like recess.
1836Lane Mod. Egypt II. xv. 285 It is common, also, for a Mooslim, on a military expedition..to carry his *grave-linen with him.
14..Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 722/30 Hic bostarius, a *grafmakere. 1602Shakes. Ham. v. i. 34 Gardiners, Ditchers, and Graue-makers. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 63 Hee being to work too fast for the Grave-maker.
1602Shakes. Ham. v. i. 74 Has this fellow no feeling of his businesse, that he sings at *Graue-making? 1894E. H. Barker Two Summers Guyenne 239 There is..very little grave-making, except by mounds and wooden crosses.
1603Dekker Wonderfull Yeare D iv, The colde companie of his *graue neighbours.
1665Walton Life Hooker in Hooker's Wks. (1888) I. 78 The poor clerk had many rewards for shewing Mr. Hooker's *grave-place. 1874Stubbs Const. Hist. I. iv. 64 The researches into the grave-places of the nations.
1732E. Forrest Hogarth's Tour 4 Hogarth..untrussed upon a *grave-rail.
1631Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. 51 The *graue-rakers, these gold-finders are called theeues.
1850Mrs. Browning Poems I. 318 The poet sings upon the earth *grave-riven.
1845Ecclesiologist IV. 291 The sin of *grave-robbing.
1838J. L. Stephens Trav. Greece, etc. 27/1 The Greeks returned, and, taking up the body, carried it to the *grave-side. 1865Mrs. Whitney Gayworthys xix. (1879) 172 How many a heart has felt that graveside solemnity.
1894H. Speight Nidderdale 190 Two well preserved *grave-slabs.
1884A. Lang Custom & Myth 286 The ghosts that haunt ancient *grave-steads.
1815Milman Fazio (1821) 53, I had rather *grave-worms were on thy lips than that bad woman's kisses.
6. Special comb.: grave-board, a board, inscribed with symbolic figures, set upright over the graves of N. American Indians; grave-clad a. nonce-wd., clad in grave-clothes; grave-cloth, ? a pall; grave-cover, a stone slab covering a grave; grave-deep a. nonce-wd., deep as the grave; grave-digging ppl. a., epithet of certain insects (see grave-digger 2); † grave-fellow, a companion in the grave; grave-find, an object or a number of objects found in a grave; grave-furniture = grave-goods; grave-goods pl., valuables deposited with a corpse in the grave; grave-hoard, a quantity of objects buried with a corpse; † grave-jelly, corruption, rottenness; grave-man, -master, a sexton; grave-mound, a hillock, or a barrow or tumulus, indicating the site of an interment, a burial-mound; grave-plant, Datura sanguinea (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1886); † grave-porer, one who is poring over or looking towards his grave; an aged man; grave-post = grave-board; grave-trap Theatr. (see quot. 1886); also fig.; † grave-wax = adipocere. Also grave-clothes, grave-digger, gravestone, graveyard.
1851Schoolcraft Indian Tribes I. 356 At the head of the grave a tabular piece of cedar, or other wood, called the adjedatig, is set. This *grave-board contains the symbolic or representative figures which record, if it be a warrior, his totem. 1862Max Müller Chips (1880) I. xiv. 318 The inscriptions which are found on the Indian graveboards.
a1802Home Alonzo iv, Why should I fear to see a *grave-clad ghost?
1646in C. W. Manwaring Digest Early Conn. Probate Rec. (1904) I. 16, 1 *graue cloath 3 s. 1764Rec. Amherst (1884) 28/1 Voted To provide..a grave Cloth for the use of the District. 1925V. Woolf Common Reader 35 The Prior of Bromholm sent word that the grave-cloth was in tatters.
1875J. T. Fowler in Archæologia XLV. 385 The *grave-covers indicated in Browne-Willis's plan.
1850Mrs. Browning Poems II. 227 Give him room! Room for the dead in Paris! welcome solemn And *grave-deep.
1847Craig s.v. Grave, *Grave-digging or burying beetle. 1851Gosse Naturalist's Soj. Jamaica 147 The labour of the bee is play compared with the efforts of the grave-digging Sphex.
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. v. 164 For he that was buried with the bones of Elisha..recovered his life by lodging with such a *grave-fellow. 1681J. Flavel Meth. Grace xviii. 327 When guilt shall neither be our bed fellow, nor grave-fellow.
1868G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. p. x, At what era they came, is not known. *Grave-finds show that it was as early as some time..before Christ.
1937Discovery 152/1 The excavation of the churchyard produced virtually nothing in the way of *grave furniture. 1939G. Clark Archæol. & Society iii. 55 Any archaeologist digging in England would give his head to find grave-furniture in anything approaching such a state of preservation as that in the young Pharaoh's tomb.
1883Daily News 7 Nov. 5/3 Burying their dead with weapons and *grave-goods.
1894― 11 Jan. 5/2 For want of *grave hoards, very little will be known about us in some three thousand years or less.
1657Reeve God's Plea 32 [He] will ere long be taken off from his leggs, lye upon a death-couch, be carried out by Bearers, and consume to *grave-gelly.
1821Combe Wife ii. (1869) 273 The bold *grave-man at the meeting Gave the rude clown so sound a beating, That [etc.].
1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 220 Committed over to the Curate, Sexton, or *Graue-master.
1859Reeve Brittany 137 Running to and fro over the *grave-mounds.
1583Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 117 To clap on shoulders his bedred *grave-porer old sire!
1840Southern Lit. Messenger VI. 191/1 When an Indian dies, it is his family or surname, that is put on his *grave-post, or adjedatigwon. 1851Schoolcraft Indian Tribes I. 356 After which the bones are buried, and the grave-posts fixed. 1855Longfellow Hiaw. xiv. 18 On the grave-posts of our fathers Are no signs, no figures painted.
1844J. R. Planché Drama at Home i. 8 I'll propose her [sc. Ophelia] to be resident directress, with a bed in the *grave trap. 1859E. Fitzball 35 Yrs. Dram. Author's Life II. 211 On one side, was the grave trap made use of in ‘Hamlet’. 1886Stage Gossip 69 The grave-trap is the one in centre of the stage, or nearly so, and is so called on account of its use in the grave scene in ‘Hamlet’. 1919M. Beer Hist. Brit. Socialism I. ii. viii. 251 He was then firmly convinced that England..was tottering to the brink of the grave-trap in which exhausted nations disappear from the scene of history.
1854Mayne Expos. Lex., *Grave-wax. 1865Page Handbk. Geol. Terms (ed. 2), Grave-wax, a familiar term of adipocere, because occasionally found in grave-yards.
Add:[5.] [a.] grave-site.
1953Funeral Plans (U.S. Army, Washington Mil. District) i. 11 The floral trucks will proceed from the Chapel to the *gravesite. 1974Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 8 Dec. 6/1 Today, even her gravesite is unknown.
▪ II. † grave, n.2 Obs.
[OE. græf, f. root of grafan grave v.1]
A graven image.
11..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 541/15 Sculptura, græf. a1300E.E. Psalter xcvi. 7 Alle schente be þat bidden graues als. Ibid. cv. 19 And a kalfe in Oreb maked þai, And baden þe graue.
▪ III. grave, n.3 local.|greɪv|
Forms: 3 greȝȝfe, greyve, 5 grafe, 5–6 grayve, 6 greyff, 5– grave.
[a. ON. greife, of obscure origin; prob. a. OS. *gréƀio (MLG. grêve) = G. graf grave n.4 (In South Yorkshire documents of the 16th c. grieve n. and grave are used indifferently.)]
†a. A steward, a person placed in charge of property (obs.).
b. In certain parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, each of a number of administrative officials formerly elected by the inhabitants of a township.
c1200Ormin 18365 Icc amm sennd biforenn himm Hiss bidell & hiss greȝȝfe. a1300Havelok 266 Schireues he sette, bedels, and greyues. 14..Benedictine Rule 374 in Engl. Studien II. 65 A priores may knaw wele þan, Sche beres þe charch of a hirdman; And als a graue bihoues hir be, Þat cure hase tayn to kepe hir fe. 14..Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 683/33 Hic villicus, Hic prepositus, a grafe. c1450Bk. Curtasye 576 in Babees Bk., Of þe resayuer he [tresurere] shalle resayue Alle þat is gedurt of baylé and grayue. Ibid. 589 Grayuis, and baylys, and parker. c1478Plumpton Corr. (Camden) 39 To the welfare of our soveraigne lord the King and you, nothing they will pay, with⁓out your said tenants will fray with them, whearfore they are in regage to divers of your graves. 1524Par. Accts. Ecclesfield, Yorks., Our lady greyffs haith maid their acownc. 1527Ibid., Owr lady grayves..haith maid theyr Recknyng and they ayr in debet iijli. xjs. ijd. c1599Acct. Bk. W. Wray in Antiquary XXXII. 278 The vsuall order of election of all & singuler Reves & graves, belonging to the prebendes wthin the colligiat churche or minster..in Ripon. 1605G. Saltern Ant. Laws Gt. Brit. E 2 b, The Saxons..called their Nobles by a name of the same signification, viz. Earles or eldermen, a name of nobilitie vnknowne in their owne Countrie; where (as I take it) they are called Graues or Greues, signifying a gouernor, which name also they brought hither, and it remaineth in some vse to this day. 1610Louth Accts. (1891) 95 Item payde for a Supper for the graves & theire wyues..iiij li. iiij s. 1710in Morehouse Kirkburton & Graveship of Holme (1861) 140 We, y⊇ Jury sworn for the lord of the Manor of Wakefield above⁓said, upon our Inquiry into the old Rentalls and Evidences concerning our said Graveship of Holme, find and present yt there are 61 Graves within our said Graveship.
attrib.1861Morehouse Kirkburton & Graveship of Holme 140 After revising the grave roll, they subscribed the following declaration.
▪ IV. † grave, n.4 Obs.
[ad. MDu. grave (Du. graaf) = graf. Now only as the second member of compound titles, as landgrave, margrave, palsgrave.]
A foreign title = count 1; chiefly used of the counts of Nassau.
1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iv. Captaines 63 When, with the rest of all his Hoast, the Grave Marcheth amain to give the Town a brave..[sidenote, Signifieth but an Earl, but here it is usurped for the chiefe Captaine Josuah]. 1609Dekker Guls Horne-bk. v. 23 Then you may discourse how honorably your Graue vsed you; obserue that you call Graue Maurice your Graue. 1638Ford Lady's Trial iv. ii, Her father was grave Hans van Herne. a1718Penn Treat. Oaths Wks. 1782 II. 485 Here follow two letters, of the Graue of Nassau, and Prince of Orange.
▪ V. grave, a.1 (n.5)|greɪv|
[a. F. grave, ad. L. grave-m, gravis heavy, important. Cf. Sp., Pg., It. grave.
The popular Fr. representative of L. grav-em is grief; see grief a.]
A. adj.
†1. Of persons: Having weight or importance; influential, respected. (Sometimes used as an epithet of respectful address.) Of authors, books, maxims, advice: Weighty, authoritative. Obs.
1541Paget in St. Papers Hen. VIII, VIII. 644 Remitting the consyderation of the same to your most excellent wisedom and grave judgement. 1557North tr. Gueuara's Diall Pr. 1272/6 Nowe I knowe, that thou art no lesse graue in making [= writing, composing], then gracious in teaching. 1583Fulke Defence Answ. to Pref. 16 Let him preferre those Scriptures which the greater number and grauer churches do receiue. a1592Greene Alphonsus iv. Wks. (Rtldg.) 240/2 Welcome, grave sir, to me. 1599Thynne Animadv. (1875) 22 Chaucer was a grave manne, holden in greate credyt. 1602Rowlands Tis Merrie when Gossips meete 23 There's an old graue Prouerbe tell's vs that Such as die Maydes, doe all lead Apes in hell. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies i. i. 2 Theodoret a very grave Authour, follows Crysostome in this opinion. 1607Shakes. Cor. ii. ii. 46 Most reuerend and graue Elders. 1622Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) 15 Our Churches direction in this particular, is grave and conform to ancient rules. 1657J. Smith Myst. Rhet. 203 Your determination is..repugnant to the grave advice of your knowing friends. 1701Grew Cosm. Sacra iii. iii. 108 Once, the Roman State [was] of all others the most celebrated for their Virtue; as the Gravest of their own Writers, and of Strangers..do bear them witness. 1741Middleton Cicero I. v. 347 By imposing so shameful a task upon the gravest man in Rome [Cato]. 1749H. Walpole Lett. (1848) II. 260 He is a grave man, and a good speaker.
2. Of works, employments, objects of consideration: Weighty, important; in later use chiefly, requiring serious thought, serious.
1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. Ded. 4, I..vowe to take aduantage of all idle houres, till I haue honoured you with some grauer labour. 16022nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. i. ii. 307 Could but a grauer subiect him [sc. Shakespeare] content, Without loues foolish lazy languishment. 1828Scott F.M. Perth x, When our council is assembled, we will treat of graver matters. 1868Helps Realmah xv. (1876) 415, I shall merely reply by asking you in turn some grave questions.
b. Now esp. in unfavourable sense, of faults, evils, difficulties, responsibilities, etc.: Highly serious, formidable. Of diseases or symptoms: Serious, threatening a fatal result.
1824Landor Imag. Conv. Ser. i. II. 110 The fault is graver than the reproof. 1858Bright Sp. India 24 June, Grave errors had been committed in that country. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. i. (1878) 4 Grave doubts as to whether I was in my place. 1885Manch. Even. News 16 July 2/3 If to-night's news be true, the position is very grave indeed. 1885Law Reports 29 Chanc. Div. 797 There has been a grave breach of duty resulting in heavy loss. 1888Fagge Princ. & Pract. Med. (ed. 2) I. 174 This [meteorism] is a grave symptom. 1896Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 190 In poisoning from phosphorus, &c., and in the grave anæmias. a1900Mod. Grave news from the front.
3. Of persons, their character, aspect, speech, or behaviour: Marked by weighty dignity; of reverend seriousness. In later use with wider sense, of temperament, feeling, or their manifestations: Serious, not mirthful or jocular; opposed to gay.
1549Latimer 5th Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 143 The Judge at the enpanelynge of the queste hadde hys graue⁓lookes. 1598Marston Pygmal. v. 161 That which I deemed Bacchus surquedry, Is graue, and staied, civill, Sobrietie. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 300 With grave Aspect he rose, and in his rising seem'd A Pillar of State. 1709Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Miss Anne Wortley 21 Aug., This letter is a good deal grave, and, like other grave things, dull. a1721Prior Cantata 10 Youth on silent wings is flown: Graver years come rolling on. 1721Berkeley Prev. Ruin Gt. Brit. Wks. III. 204 At a time when the nation ought to be too grave for such trifles. 1802Wolcot (P. Pindar) Pitt & his Statue Wks. 1812 IV. 510 His grave Lordship and grave wig Both with the first importance big. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xxi, He should be subjected to the charge of some grave counsellor. 1848Dickens Dombey iv, Solomon looked a little graver as he finished his dinner. 1868J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 329 The Prior of Durham writes a grave letter to him. 1889‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms xxviii, There was old George sitting on the bench as grave as a judge. 1897Literature 190/2 The grave-and-gay verse so characteristic of this poet.
absol.1676Glanvill Ess. Philos. & Relig. vi. 17 The Grave and the Sober, whose Judgements we have no reason to suspect to be tainted by their Imaginations. 1725Pope Odyss. xiv. 522 The grave in merry measures frisk about.
b. Of movements, also of music, tones of voice, etc.: Expressive of or befitting serious feelings, serious, solemn.
1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. xiv. 98 They go with a grave, fayre, and soft pace. 1597Morley Introd. Mus. 177 You must..if you have a graue matter, applie a graue kinde of musick to it. Ibid. 181 A kinde of staide musicke ordained for graue dauncing. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 173 We two will walke (my Lord) And leaue you to your grauer steps. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 312 When he saw the Monks with grave steps draw nearer the bed [etc.]. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 30 That way of saluting is very grave. 1859Dickens T. Two Cities i. v, The children had ancient faces and grave voices. 1897W. Watson Hope World, etc. (1898) 24 The Song of Mingling flows Grave, ceremonial, pure.
4. Of colour, dress, etc.: Dull, plain, sombre, not gay or showy.
1611Cotgr., s.v. Fol, Graue clothes make dunces often seeme great Clarkes. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 267 A mantle..dyed in two or three grave brown colours. 1756Nugent Gr. Tour, Italy III. 86 Their dress is grave and becoming. 1811Self Instructor 520 Every part has equally received the pumice..exhibiting a dead grave appearance. 1849Ruskin Sev. Lamps vi. §12. 174 Vigorous oppositions of light and shadow, and grave, deep, or boldly contrasted colour. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola (1880) I. Introd. 3 The folds of his well-lined black silk garment..hang in grave unbroken lines from neck to ankle.
quasi-adv.1805Emily Clark Banks of Douro I. 18 Though so young, she dressed plain and grave, to give her an older appearance.
5. [After L. gravis.] Physically ponderous, heavy. Obs. or arch.
1570Levins Manip. 42/44 Graue, grauis, grandis. c1611Chapman Iliad v. 752 In her violent hand she takes his graue, huge, solid lance. 1682Weekly Mem. Ingen. 356 Some few others are equally grave with the water within which they are. 1805Wordsw. Waggoner i. 13 The mountains against heaven's grave weight Rise up.
6. Of sounds: Low in pitch, deep in tone; opposed to acute. grave accent (see accent 1, 2). grave harmonic (see harmonic B. 2).
1609Douland Ornith. Microl. 71 A graue accent is made in the end of a complete sentence. 1669Holder Elem. Speech 99 The Acute accent raising the Voice in some certain Syllables, to a higher, i.e. more acute Pitch or Tone, and the Grave depressing it lower. 1706A. Bedford Temple Mus. ii. 19 The Verse was also mixt with acute and grave Sounds. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., The thicker the chord, or string, the more grave the tone, or note. 1779[see acute a. 5]. 1831Brewster Nat. Magic ix. (1833) 229 Dr. Wollaston has also shown that this is true also of very grave sounds. 1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, Grave (1) Deep in pitch; as grave hexachord, the lowest hexachord in the Guidonian system. 1881Nature No. 616. 358 A low booming tone to which musicians give the name of the grave harmonic.
7. attrib. and Comb. Chiefly parasynthetic, as grave-browed, grave-coloured, grave-eyed, grave-faced, grave-hearted, grave-looking, grave-toned, grave-visaged adjs.
1861W. F. Collier Hist. Eng. Lit. 41 *Grave-browed men.
1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 25 A morning gown of a *grave coloured flowered damask.
1861W. F. Collier Hist. Eng. Lit. 155 *Grave-eyed philosophers.
a1699J. Beaumont Psyche xiii. 21 Those *grave-fac'd Bloodhownds..those Elders. 1863Atkinson Stanton Grange 96 The grave-faced assurance the young man gave him.
1642Vicars God in Mount (1644) 75 The grey-headed but not *grave-hearted Citizens of London.
1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 237 A thoughtful, *grave-looking personage. 1828Miss Mitford Village Ser. iii. 273 It was a grave-looking mansion.
1751Wesley Wks. (1872) XIV. 80 A word that has no accent on the last syllable is termed a *grave-toned.
1843Lytton Last Bar. i. i, Here is my *grave-visaged headman.
B. n. A grave accent; † a grave note.
1609[see acute a. B]. 1727Boyer Dict. Fr.-Eng. s.v. Grave, Accent grave..the Accent Grave, the Grave. 1728R. North Mem. Musick (1846) 28 A right downe singing, with acutes and graves. 1824J. Johnson Typogr. II. iii. 36 Vowels marked with a grave..; è has a grave when it stands for a word by itself.
▪ VI. ‖ grave, a.2 Mus.|grav, ˈgrave|
[F. grave or It. grave = grave a.1]
A term indicating a slow and solemn movement.
1683Purcell 3-Pt. Sonnatas To Rdr., The English Practitioner..will find a few terms of Art perhaps unusual to him, the chief of which are these following: Adagio and Grave, which import nothing but a very slow movement: [then Largo, etc.]. 1724Explic. For. Words Mus. 36 Grave, signifies a very Grave and Slow Movement, somewhat faster than Adagio, and slower than Largo. 1762Sterne Tr. Shandy VI. xi, What Yorick could mean by the words lentamente,—tenutè [sic],—grave,—and sometimes adagio,—as applied to theological compositions..I dare not venture to guess. 1848Rimbault First Bk. Piano 65 Grave, a very slow and solemn degree of movement.
▪ VII. grave, v.1|greɪv|
Forms: inf. 1 grafan, 3 graven, (5 gravyn), 4–7 grave, (5 grafe, grawe, 6 greve, Sc. graife, 7 greave), 4– grave. pa. tense 1 gróf, 4 grof(e, (grufe), 4–5 grove, (5 grave); weak forms: 4–6 gravede, 4– graved. pa. pple. 1 (á-, be-)grafen, 4–6 grave, (5 Sc. grawin, 6 graffin), 3– graven; also 3, 5 igrave(n, 4–5 ygrave; weak forms: 4– graved, (5 -id, Sc. -it, 6 -yd); also 4 igraved.
[A Com. Teut. str. vb.; OE. grafan (pa. tense gróf, grófon, pa. pple. -grafen) to dig, to engrave (cf. begrafan to bury: see begrave), OS. bigraƀan to bury, OLow Frankish gravan to dig, (MDu., Du. graven to dig), OHG. graban to dig, carve, (MHG., G. graben to dig; begraben to bury, eingraben to engrave), ON. grafa to dig, to bury (Sw. grafva, gräfva, Da. grave), Goth. graban to dig, f. OTeut. root *graƀ-, grôƀ- (whence grave n.1, groove n.):—pre-Teut. *ghrā̆bh-. Cognates are found in OSl. grebą I dig (also, I row), grobŭ ditch, Lettish grebju I scrape. Connexion with Gr. γράϕειν, to write, is no longer accepted by philologists. The str. pa. tense died out in the 15th c.; in the pa. pple. the str. form is still the prevailing one.
The F. graver, to engrave, is an adoption of the Teut. vb.; its compound engraver became Eng. as engrave v., which has nearly superseded the native word in this sense.]
I.
1. intr. To dig. Obs. exc. dial. † Also fig.
a1000Riddles xxii. 2 (Gr.) Ic..be grunde græfe. a1000Boeth. Metr. viii. 57 Se forma feohᵹitsere..grof æfter golde. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxix. 132 At þe last þai schall dryfe him to þe hole whare he come oute. And þan schall þai grafe after him. 1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 83 He [sc. þoght] graueþ deppest of seekenesses alle. c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 2377 And he stode grauand with a spade. 1674–91in Ray N.C. Words. 1867J. P. Morris Siege o' Brou'ton 5 (Lanc. Gloss.) Jinny Dodgon ran into t' garden, whār her āld man was greavin'.
2. trans. To dig, form by digging; to dig out, excavate. Also with out, up. † to grave away: to get rid of by digging. Now rare exc. dial. in to grave peat(s, grave turf.
a1000Riming Poem 71 (Gr.) Þæt ic grofe græf. a1300Cursor M. 17288 + 134 It was in maner of a hows þat crist laide in was, Grauen depe in a roche. a1300E.E. Psalter vii. 16 Þe slough he opened and it groue he. 1340–70Alex. & Dind. 7 Þei..hadde graue on þe ground many grete cauys. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 678 Cleopatra, And next the shryne a pit thann doth she grave. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) ix. 35 Þe pitte þer þai graue it vpp. c1425St. Eliz. of Spalbeck in Anglia VIII. 109/15 Sche..strekith oute hir fynger & puttith to hir eyen..as sche wolde graue hem oute or bore hem in. 1483Cath. Angl. 163/2 To Grave, cespitare, fodere. 1535Coverdale Jer. xviii. 14 Maye the springes off waters be grauen awaye. ― Ezek. iv. 2 Stronge diches are grauen on euery syde off it. 1552Lyndesay Monarche Prol. 278 That sors..Off Hylicone..That Longeous..did graue in tyll his syde. 1557Rec. Scotter Manor in N.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., No man shall graue any turves in thest car nor in Rany[how] vpon payne for euery dayes work, iijs iiijd. 1560Bible (Genev.) Isa. xxii. 16 He that..graueth an habitacion for him self in a rocke. 1641Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 70 We grave up a rownde sodde with a spade. 1747Stovin in Phil. Trans. XLIV. 571 The Pit he was graveing Peat in. 1794Trans. Soc. Arts XII. 126 And the earth [was] graved up, where each plant was to stand, one spit deep. 1884Gd. Words 76 Out on the top was an old man graving turf. 1896M. Beaumont Joan Seaton 61 ‘So he graved that [a dike] to carry my water off from t' beck.’
II. To bury. [Not recorded in OE., which has begrafan in this sense; cf. ON. grafa.]
3. To deposit (a corpse) in the ground, in a tomb; to bury, inter. Obs. or arch.
In the later examples prob. apprehended as a derivative of grave n.1
c1250Gen. & Ex. 3778 Ðarð noman swinken hem [sc. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram] to grauen. a1300Cursor M. 3213 In ebron groue hir abraham. Ibid. 17660 All we cund þe mikel graim For iesu þou grufe [Gött. grof] his licam. c1300Havelok 2528 In the tun ther Grim was grauen. c1340Cursor M. 6962 (Trin.) Joseph bones þei wiþ hem lede And þere graued [Cott., Gött. grof] hem in þat stede. 1375Barbour Bruce iv. 309 At Ierusalem thus trowit he Gravyn in the burch to be. 1430–40Lydg. Bochas i. iv. (1544) 8 a, After tyme her father was ygraue. c1440York Myst. xxiv. 140 What tyme þat he was graued in graue. c1450Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 227 That he must now in cley be grave. 1513Douglas æneis Epitaph, Now stant I grave in Naplys the cite. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 298 Ewgenius..grauit wes..in Ecolumkill. 16022nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. iii. v. 1442 Dead things are graued. 1632Massinger & Field Fatal Dowry iii, Would I had seen thee graved with thy great sire. 1876J. Grant One of the ‘600’ ix. 80 They told you that I was dead too and graved in yonder kirk.
fig.1597–8Bp. Hall Sat. iii. ii. 23 Thine ill deserts cannot be graued with thee.
†b. To deposit or hide under ground. Obs.
a1300Cursor M. 16923 Nu is þe croice grauen vnder greit and iesus vnder stan. c1386Chaucer Wife's T. 209 For al the metal ne for oore That vnder erthe is graue. c1420Pallad. on Husb. vi. 45 Sarment, or stre, or loppe in hit be graued.
†c. To swallow up in or as in a grave. Obs.
a1340Hampole Psalter vi. 5 Hell graues synful men. 1607Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 166 Ditches graue you all. c1611Chapman Iliad xv. 317 The throtes of dogs shall graue His manlesse lims.
III. To engrave.
4. To form by carving, to carve, sculpture. lit. and fig.; also absol. Obs. exc. poet.
c1000Ags. Ps. (Th.) lxxvii[i]. 58 Hi..him woh-godu worhtan and grofun. 1382Wyclif Hab. ii. 18 What profitith the sculptile for his maker grauede it. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. lxviii. (1495) 575 Men that grave loue it [Marbyl callyd Caristium] wel. c1400Destr. Troy 8744 Like ymages were all, abill of shap, & craftely grauen. c1430Hymns Virg. 104 Make not þi god þat man haþ graue. 1535Coverdale 2 Esdras xiii. 6 Beholde, he graued himself a greate mountayne. 1671Milton P.R. i. 253 Affirming it thy Star new graven in Heaven. 1706Stanhope Paraphr. III. 373 Images that our distempered Fancies first form and grave to themselves, and then fall down and worship them. 1878H. Phillips Poems fr. Span. & Ger. 14, I graved for thee a silver god.
†b. in pa. pple. = chiselled 2. Obs. rare—1.
1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 88 Eares graven, somewhat short, soft, and delicate.
†5.
a. To cut into (a hard material); in quots. fig.
b. To mark by incisions; to ornament with incised marks; = engrave v. 2. Obs.
13..Test. Christi (Vernon MS.) in Archiv Stud. neu Spr. LXXIX. 428 Þe seles þat hit was seled wiþ Þei were grauen vp-on a stiþ. c1374Chaucer Troylus ii. 1192 (1241) Hard was it youre herte for to graue. Ibid. iii. 1413 (1462) What proferestow thi light here for to selle Go selle it hem þat smale selys grauen. 1399Langl. Rich. Redeles i. 40 It [the croune] was ffull goodeliche y-graue with gold al aboute. a1400Morte Arth. 3463 His gloves gayliche gilte, and gravene by þe hemmys, With graynes of rubyes fulle gracious to schewe. a1400–50Alexander 3343 Þe thrid of a Topas a-tyred & trelest & grauen. c1470Henry Wallace viii. 107 Hys glytterand glowis grawin on athir sid. 1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 376 Being steeld, soft sighes can neuer graue it [thy heart]. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. iv. 324 A..Watch, curiously wrought, graved, and enameled.
c. nonce-use. To mark as with engraved lines.
1865Geikie Scen. & Geol. Scot. i. 1 Man..graves the country with lines of roadway.
6. To engrave (an inscription, figures, etc.) upon a surface. Also, to engrave (a surface) with (letters, etc.). Hence, to record by engraved or incised letters. arch.
c1205Lay. 7636 Þer on weoren igrauen Feole cunne bocstauen. c1305Edmund Conf. 91 in E.E.P. (1862) 73 Aue maria gracia plena: þuse four wordes were ido & igraued in his ring of golde. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 507 That rode thei honoure, That in grotes is ygraue, and in golde nobles. 1390Gower Conf. III. 73 A ring, wherin a stone Was set and grave therupon A sonne. a1400–50Alexander 201 All þe sawis of þaire Syre..Þare gan þai graithly þam graue in golden lettirs. 1463Bury Wills (Camden) 15 My smale tablys of ivory gravyn with ymages. 1551Robinson tr. More's Utop. ii. (Arb.) 148 A piller of stone with the dead mans titles therin graved. c1600Norden Spec. Brit., Cornw. (1728) 64 A fayre earthen pott gylded and grauen with letters. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia iii. vi. 62 There setting vp crosses, and graving our names in the trees. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. vi. (1840) 140 Ham..caused the rules and precepts to be graved in metal. 1750Gray Elegy xxix, Approach and read..the lay Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xvi, Wreaths less liable to wither..than some which were graven deep in stone and marble. 1869Blackmore Lorna D. i, Go and see my name John Ridd graven on that very form. 1887Bowen Virg. æneid vi. 20 Graved on the doors is the death of Androgeos.
absol.1430–40Lydg. Bochas ii. xv. (1554) 54 Sethes children..Made two pillers where men myght graue. c1614Sir W. Mure Dido & æneas i. 492 Some grave in brasse; some kyth their craft in stone. 1877C. Geikie Christ xiii. (1879) 127 Seeking wisdom when you are old is like writing on water; seeking it when you are young is like graving on stone.
b. fig. To impress deeply, to fix indelibly; = engrave v. 3 c.
1390Gower Conf. I. 60 Min hert is growen into stone, So that my lady there upon Hath suche a printe of loue grave, That [etc.]. c1460Ros La Belle Dame 281 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 61 Yf suche bileve be in your mynde y-grave. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 239 And he wolde that we sholde greue them in y⊇ tables of our hertes. 1559Primer in Priv. Prayers (1851) 38 O Christ..Faith in our hearts set and grave. 1580Sidney Ps. xxv. iv, Let those things thy remembrance grave, Since they eternall essence have. 1690Locke Hum. Und. i. iv. §20. 34 To what purpose should Characters be graven on the Mind, by the finger of God. 1725Pope Odyss. xviii. 156 Hear my words and grave them in thy mind! a1839Praed Poems (1864) II. 107 Until my heart shall cease to beat,..That kind blue eye and golden hair, Eternally are graven there. 1851Hawthorne Snow Image, Gt. Stone Face (1879) 52 His wrinkles and furrows were inscriptions that Time had graved. 1890Spectator 8 Nov. 639/2 With this conviction well graved into his mind. 1898J. Caird Univ. Serm. 71 Features on which time had graven its seemingly indelible impress.
†7. To portray or copy in an engraving; = engrave v. 4. Obs.
a1631Donne Serm. i. (1634) 2 That earth, which if we will cast it all but into a map, costs many moneths labour to grave it. 1690Evelyn in Pepys' Diary VI. 171, I am deceived if he has not graved most of the Chancellors. 1707Sloane Jamaica I. p. xlix, The figures of some of these instruments are hereafter graved. 1818W. Allston in W. Irving's Life & Lett. (1864) I. 398 The time the engraver demands for graving my drawing.
▪ VIII. grave, v.2|greɪv|
Also 7 greave.
[Of obscure origin; possibly f. F. grave = grève shore.
The guess that the word is a derivative of graves, greaves, rests on the baseless and unlikely assertion that that substance was formerly used in the operation. The vb. occurs much earlier than the n.]
trans. To clean (a ship's bottom) by burning off the accretions, and paying it over with tar or some composition, while aground on a beach, or placed in a specially-constructed dock. (Cf. bream v.1)
1461in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 301 No maner shipp of aliennts..to be sette agrounde to be graved in no manere place within the francheise of the saide citie. 1600W. Magoths in Hakluyt Voy. III. 839 Wee stayed in this harborough 17 dayes, to graue our ship & refresh our wearied people. 1668Lond. Gaz. No. 279/4 Yesterday were launched, the Monmouth and Mary, which are new Graved and re-fitted. 1692in J. Smith's Seaman's Gram. xvi. 78 To greave a Ship, is to bring her to lye dry a ground, to burn off her old filth. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. xiii. (1840) 248 Our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of the ship. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Fourches de carene, breaming-hooks..used to hold the flaming furze..to a ship's bottom when graving. 1891C. Creighton Hist. Epidemics 585 They graved the ship there and remained twenty-six days.
▪ IX. grave, v.3 rare—0. Mus.|greɪv|
[f. grave a.2]
trans. To render (a note or tone) grave.
1864in Webster; and in later Dicts.
▪ X. grave
obs. Sc. form of grove. |