grave

I. transitive verb (graved; graven or graved; graving) Etymology: Middle English, from Old English grafan; akin to Old High German graban to dig, Old Church Slavic pogreti to bury Date: before 12th century 1. archaic dig, excavate 2. a. to carve or shape with a chisel ; sculpture b. to carve or cut (as letters or figures) into a hard surface ; engrave 3. to impress or fix (as a thought) deeply II. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English græf; akin to Old High German grab grave, Old English grafan to dig Date: before 12th century 1. an excavation for burial of a body; broadly a burial place 2. a. death 1a b. death 4 III. transitive verb (graved; graving) Etymology: Middle English graven Date: 15th century to clean and pay with pitch <

grave a ship's bottom

> IV. adjective (graver; gravest) Etymology: Middle French, from Latin gravis heavy, grave — more at grieve Date: 1539 1. a. obsolete authoritative, weighty b. meriting serious consideration ; important <

grave problems

> c. likely to produce great harm or danger <

a grave mistake

> d. significantly serious ; considerable, great <

grave importance

> 2. having a serious and dignified quality or demeanor <

a grave and thoughtful look

> 3. drab in color ; somber 4. low-pitched in sound 5. a. of an accent mark having the form ˋ b. marked with a grave accent c. of the variety indicated by a grave accent Synonyms: see serious • gravely adverb • graveness noun V. noun Date: 1609 a grave accent ˋ used to show that a vowel is pronounced with a fall of pitch (as in ancient Greek), that a vowel has a certain quality (as è in French), that a final e is stressed and close and that a final o is stressed and low (as in Italian), that a syllable has a degree of stress between maximum and minimum (as in phonetic transcription), or that the e of the English ending -ed is to be pronounced (as in “this cursèd day”) VI. adverb or adjective Etymology: Italian, literally, grave, from Latin gravis Date: 1683 slowly and solemnly — used as a direction in music