graven
- a past participle of grave3.
- deeply impressed; firmly fixed.
- carved; sculptured: a graven idol.
Origin of graven
grave3
- to carve, sculpt, or engrave.
- to impress deeply: graven on the mind.
Origin of grave3
grave4
- to clean and apply a protective composition of tar to (the bottom of a ship).
Origin of grave4
Examples from the Web for graven
Historical Examples
But along the edge of the oven were graven the signs of the eight elemental forces.
The Chinese Fairy BookVarious
She faced Hendricks, who had stood there like a graven image, watching her.
Priestess of the FlameSewell Peaslee Wright
"I ain't exactly a graven image, now that you mention it," he admitted.
Cap'n Dan's DaughterJoseph C. Lincoln
Has existence only to unroll a tableau, every detail of which is graven on my heart?
Gerald FitzgeraldCharles James Lever
Darn him, like a graven image there, the only mute, immovable thing in that turmoil!
The Million-Dollar SuitcaseAlice MacGowan
graven
- a past participle of grave 3
- strongly fixed
grave1
- a place for the burial of a corpse, esp beneath the ground and usually marked by a tombstoneRelated adjective: sepulchral
- something resembling a grave or resting placethe ship went to its grave
- the grave a poetic term for death
- have one foot in the grave informal to be near death
- to make someone turn in his grave or to make someone turn over in his grave to do something that would have shocked or distressed (someone now dead)many modern dictionaries would make Dr Johnson turn in his grave
Word Origin
grave2
- serious and solemna grave look
- full of or suggesting dangera grave situation
- important; crucialgrave matters of state
- (of colours) sober or dull
- phonetics
- (of a vowel or syllable in some languages with a pitch accent, such as ancient Greek) spoken on a lower or falling musical pitch relative to neighbouring syllables or vowels
- of or relating to an accent (`) over vowels, denoting a pronunciation with lower or falling musical pitch (as in ancient Greek), with certain special quality (as in French), or in a manner that gives the vowel status as a syllable nucleus not usually possessed by it in that position (as in English agèd)Compare acute (def. 8), circumflex
- a grave accent
Word Origin
grave3
- to cut, carve, sculpt, or engrave
- to fix firmly in the mind
Word Origin
grave4
- (tr) nautical to clean and apply a coating of pitch to (the bottom of a vessel)
Word Origin
grave5
- music to be performed in a solemn manner
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for graven
grave
n.
Old English græf "grave, ditch, cave," from Proto-Germanic *graban (cf. Old Saxon graf, Old Frisian gref, Old High German grab "grave, tomb;" Old Norse gröf "cave," Gothic graba "ditch"), from PIE root *ghrebh- "to dig, to scratch, to scrape" (cf. Old Church Slavonic grobu "grave, tomb"); related to grafan "to dig" (see grave (v.)).
"The normal mod. representation of OE. græf would be graff; the ME. disyllable grave, from which the standard mod. form descends, was prob. due to the especially frequent occurrence of the word in the dat. (locative) case. [OED]
From Middle Ages to 17c., they were temporary, crudely marked repositories from which the bones were removed to ossuaries after some years and the grave used for a fresh burial. "Perpetual graves" became common from c.1650. To make (someone) turn in his grave "behave in some way that would have offended the dead person" is first recorded 1888.
grave
adj.
1540s, from Middle French grave (14c.), from Latin gravis "weighty, serious, heavy, grievous, oppressive," from PIE root *gwere- "heavy" (cf. Sanskrit guruh "heavy, weighty, venerable;" Greek baros "weight," barys "heavy in weight," often with the notion of "strength, force;" Old English cweorn "quern;" Gothic kaurus "heavy;" Lettish gruts "heavy"). Greek barys (opposed to kouphos) also was used figuratively, of suffering, sorrow, sobbing, and could mean "oppressive, burdensome, grave, dignified, impressive." The noun meaning "accent mark over a vowel" is c.1600, from French.
grave
v.
"to engrave," Old English grafan (medial -f- pronounced as "v" in Old English; past tense grof, past participle grafen) "to dig, carve, dig up," from Proto-Germanic *grabanan (cf. Old Norse grafa, Old Frisian greva, Dutch graven, Old High German graban, German graben, Gothic graban "to dig, carve"), from the same source as grave (n.). Its Middle English strong past participle, graven, is the only part still active, the rest of the word supplanted by its derivative, engrave.
grave
(grāv)- Serious or dangerous, as a symptom or disease.
Idioms and Phrases with graven
grave
see dig one's own grave; from the cradle to the grave; one foot in the grave; turn in one's grave.