King James Bible Dictionary

Among the ancient Hebrews graves were outside of cities in the open field (Luke 7:12; John 11:30). Kings (1 Kings 2:10) and prophets (1 Samuel 25:1) were generally buried within cities. Graves were generally grottoes or caves, natural or hewn out in rocks (Isaiah 22:16; Matthew 27:60). There were family cemeteries (Genesis 47:29; 50:5; 2 Samuel 19:37). Public burial-places were assigned to the poor (Jeremiah 26:23; 2 Kings 23:6). Graves were usually closed with stones, which were whitewashed, to warn strangers against contact with them (Matthew 23:27), which caused ceremonial pollution (Numbers 19:16).

There were no graves in Jerusalem except those of the kings, and according to tradition that of the prophetess Huldah.

General references
Hosea 13:14; 1 Corinthians 15:55
Burial

[BURIAL, SEPULCHRES]

GRAVE, a final syllable, is a grove.

GRAVE, verb transitive preterit tense graved; participle passive graven or graved. [Gr. to write; originally all writing was graving; Eng. to scrape.]

1. To carve or cut letters or figures on stone or other hard substance, with a chisel or edged tool; to engrave. [The latter word is now more generally used.]

Thou shalt take two onyx-stones and grave on them the names of the children of Israel. Exodus 28:9.

2. To carve; to form or shape by cutting with a chisel; as, to grave an image.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Exodus 20:4.

3. To clean a ship's bottom by burning off filth, grass or other foreign matter, and paying it over with pitch.

4. To entomb. [Unusual.]

GRAVE, verb intransitive To carve; to write or delineate on hard substances; to practice engraving.

GRAVE, noun [Latin scrobs.]

1. The ditch, pit or excavated place in which a dead human body is deposited; a place for the corpse of a human being; a sepulcher.

2. A tomb.

3. Any place where the dead are reposited; a place of great slaughter or mortality. Flanders was formerly the grave of English armies. Russia proved to be the grave of the French army under Bonaparte. The tropical climates are the grave of American seamen and of British soldiers.

4. Graves, in the plural, sediment of tallow melted. [Not in use or local.]

GRA'VE-CLOTHES, noun The clothes or dress in which the dead are interred.

GRA'VED, participle passive [See the Verb.] Carved; engraved; cleaned, as a ship.

GRA'VE-DIGGER, noun One whose occupation is to dig graves.

Figurative; Proverbs 20:17

GRAV'EL, noun

1. Small stones or fragments of stone, or very small pebbles, larger than the particles of sand, but often intermixed with them.

2. In medicine, small calculous concretions in the kidneys and bladder.

GRAV'EL, verb transitive To cover with gravel; as, to gravel a walk.

1. To stick in the sand.

2. To puzzle; to stop; to embarrass.

3. To hurt the foot of a horse, by gravel lodged under the shoe.

GRAV'ELED, participle passive Covered with gravel; stopped; embarrassed; injured by gravel.

GRA'VELESS, adjective [from grave.] Without a grave or tomb; unburied.

GRAV'ELLY, adjective [from gravel.] Abounding with gravel; consisting of gravel; as a gravelly soil or land.

GRAV'EL-WALK, noun A walk or alley covered with gravel, which makes a hard and dry bottom; used in gardens and malls.

GRA'VELY, adverb [from grave.] In a grave, solemn manner; soberly; seriously.

The queen of learning gravely smiles.

1. Without gaudiness or show; as, to be dressed gravely

GRA'VE-MAKER, noun A grave-digger.

Deuteronomy 27:15; Psalms 97:7 (Heb. pesel), refers to the household gods of idolaters. "Every nation and city had its own gods...Yet every family had its separate household or tutelary god."

GRA'VENESS, noun Seriousness; solemnity; sobriety of behavior; gravity of manners or discourse.

GRA'VER, noun [See Grave.] One who carves or engraves; one whose profession is to cut letters or figures in stone, etc.; a sculptor.

1. An engraving tool; an instrument for graving on hard substances.

GRA'VE-STONE,noun A stone laid over a grave, or erected near it, as a monument to preserve the memory of the dead.

GRAVE, adjective [Latin gravis, heavy, whence Latin gravo, and aggravo, to aggravate.

1. In music, low; depressed; solemn; opposed to sharp, acute, or high; as a grave tone or sound. Sometimes grave denotes slow.

2. Solemn; sober; serious; opposed to gay, light or jovial; as a man of a grave deportment; a grave character.

Youth on silent wings is flown;

Graver years come rolling on.

3. Plain; not gay; not showy or tawdry; as a grave suit of clothes.

4. Being of weight; of a serious character; as a grave writer.

5. Important; momentous; having a serious and interesting import.