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What is the difference between tomb and grave?

tomb | grave |

As nouns the difference between tomb and grave

is that tomb is a small building (or "vault") for the remains of the dead, with walls, a roof, and (if it is to be used for more than one corpse) a door. It may be partly or wholly in the ground (except for its entrance) in a cemetery, or it may be inside a church proper or in its crypt. Single tombs may be permanently sealed; those for families (or other groups) have doors for access whenever needed while grave is an excavation in the earth as a place of burial; also, any place of interment; a tomb; a sepulcher.

As verbs the difference between tomb and grave

is that tomb is to bury while grave is to dig.

As an adjective grave is

influential, important; authoritative.

tomb

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small building (or "vault") for the remains of the dead, with walls, a roof, and (if it is to be used for more than one corpse) a door. It may be partly or wholly in the ground (except for its entrance) in a cemetery, or it may be inside a church proper or in its crypt. Single tombs may be permanently sealed; those for families (or other groups) have doors for access whenever needed.
  • A pit in which the dead body of a human being is deposited; a grave.
  • * Shakespeare
  • As one dead in the bottom of a tomb .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To bury.
  • grave

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) . Related to (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An excavation in the earth as a place of burial; also, any place of interment; a tomb; a sepulcher.
  • * (rfdate), 11:17:
  • He had lain in the grave four days.
  • * 1856 , Eleanor Marx-Aveling (translator), (Gustave Flaubert) (author), (Madame Bovary) , Part III, Chapter X:
  • They reached the cemetery. The men went right down to a place in the grass where a grave was dug. They ranged themselves all round; and while the priest spoke, the red soil thrown up at the sides kept noiselessly slipping down at the corners.
  • death, destruction.
  • Derived terms
    * begrave * dance on someone's grave * dig one's own grave * early grave * graveclothes * grave marker * grave robber * graverobbing * gravedigger * gravelike * graveside * gravesite * gravestone * graveward * mass grave * turn in one's grave * war grave * white man's grave

    See also

    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To dig.
  • * (rfdate) (Book of Prayer) , (Psalms) 7:16:
  • He hath graven and digged up a pit.
  • (obsolete) To carve or cut, as letters or figures, on some hard substance; to engrave.
  • * (w) 28:9:
  • Thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1872 , year_published=2009 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=James De Mille , title=The Cryptogram , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=Deep lines were graven on her pale forehead, and on her wan, thin cheeks. }}
  • * (rfdate) (Robert Louis Stevenson), Requiem :
  • This be the verse you grave for me / "Here he lies where he longs to be"
  • (obsolete) To carve out or give shape to, by cutting with a chisel; to sculpture; as, to grave an image.
  • * (rfdate) (Geoffrey Chaucer):
  • With gold men may the hearte grave .
  • (obsolete) To impress deeply (on the mind); to fix indelibly.
  • * (rfdate) (Matthew Prior):
  • O! may they graven in thy heart remain.
  • (obsolete) To entomb; to bury.
  • * (rfdate), (William Shakespeare):
  • Lie full low, graved in the hollow ground.
  • (transitive, obsolete, nautical) 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.
  • (obsolete) To write or delineate on hard substances, by means of incised lines; to practice engraving.
  • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (obsolete) Influential, important; authoritative.
  • *, II.3.7:
  • An illiterate fool sits in a mans seat; and the common people hold him learned, grave , and wise.
  • Characterised by a dignified sense of seriousness; not cheerful, sombre.
  • Low in pitch, tone etc.
  • * (rfdate) (Moore), Encyclopedia of Music :
  • ''The thicker the cord or string, the more grave is the note or tone.
  • Serious, in a negative sense; important, formidable.
  • Synonyms
    * * (unsorted by sense) solemn, sober, serious, sage, staid, demure, thoughtful, sedate, weighty, momentous, important

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A written accent used in French, Italian, and other languages. è is an e with a grave accent.
  • Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----