Definition of grave

• v. t. - To clean, as a vessel's bottom, of barnacles, grass, etc., and pay it over with pitch; -- so called because graves or greaves was formerly used for this purpose.
• superl. - Of great weight; heavy; ponderous.
• superl. - Of importance; momentous; weighty; influential; sedate; serious; -- said of character, relations, etc.; as, grave deportment, character, influence, etc.
• superl. - Not light or gay; solemn; sober; plain; as, a grave color; a grave face.
• superl. - Not acute or sharp; low; deep; -- said of sound; as, a grave note or key.
• superl. - Slow and solemn in movement.
• n. - To dig. [Obs.] Chaucer.
• n. - To carve or cut, as letters or figures, on some hard substance; to engrave.
• n. - To carve out or give shape to, by cutting with a chisel; to sculpture; as, to grave an image.
• n. - To impress deeply (on the mind); to fix indelibly.
• n. - To entomb; to bury.
• v. i. - To write or delineate on hard substances, by means of incised lines; to practice engraving.
• n. - An excavation in the earth as a place of burial; also, any place of interment; a tomb; a sepulcher. Hence: Death; destruction.