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grave
used in Middlemarch

62 uses
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1  —35 uses as in:
Her manner was grave.
Definition
serious and/or solemn
The exact meaning of this sense of grave can depend upon its context. For example:
  • "This is a grave problem," or "a situation of the utmost gravity." — important, dangerous, or causing worry
  • "She was in a grave mood upon returning from the funeral." — sad or solemn
  • "She looked me in the eye and gravely promised." — in a sincere and serious manner
  • "Fly, Fly, I am ashamed of you," Mary was saying in a grave contralto.
    Book 5 — The Dead Hand (83% in)
  • Mr. Casaubon gravely smiled approval, and said to Mr. Brooke, "You have an excellent secretary at hand, you perceive."
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (11% in)
  • Celia knelt down to get the right level and gave her little butterfly kiss, while Dorothea encircled her with gentle arms and pressed her lips gravely on each cheek in turn.
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (35% in)
  • "You make me feel very uncomfortable, Mary," said Rosamond, with her gravest mildness; "I would not tell mamma for the world."
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (96% in)
  • Mr. Casaubon gravely hoped that Will was passing his time profitably as well as pleasantly in Rome—had thought his intention was to remain in South Germany—but begged him to come and dine to-morrow, when he could converse more at large: at present he was somewhat weary.
    Book 2 — Old and Young (85% in)
  • She had returned from her brief pacing and stood opposite Will, looking gravely at him.
    Book 2 — Old and Young (99% in)
  • "I must give you the ninety-two pounds that I have put by for Alfred's premium," said Mrs. Garth, gravely and decisively, though a nice ear might have discerned a slight tremor in some of the words.
    Book 3 — Waiting for Death (23% in)
  • "Don't fear for me, father," said Mary, gravely meeting her father's eyes; "Fred has always been very good to me; he is kind-hearted and affectionate, and not false, I think, with all his self-indulgence.
    Book 3 — Waiting for Death (33% in)
  • "You are alone, I see, my dear," she said, as they entered the drawing-room together, looking round gravely.
    Book 3 — Waiting for Death (74% in)
  • "Brother Peter," he said, in a wheedling yet gravely official tone, "It's nothing but right I should speak to you about the Three Crofts and the Manganese.
    Book 3 — Waiting for Death (87% in)
  • "Because this is one of a dozen, and without it there would only be eleven," said Mary, with a grave air of explanation, so that Letty sank back with a sense of knowledge.
    Book 4 — Three Love Problems (72% in)
  • "It wouldn't make me happy to do such a nasty duty as that," said Alfred—at which Mary and her father laughed silently, but Mrs. Garth said, gravely— "Do find a fitter word than nasty, my dear Alfred, for everything that you think disagreeable.
    Book 4 — Three Love Problems (73% in)
  • His face had an expression of grave surprise, which alarmed her a little, but he did not like to be questioned while he was reading, and she remained anxiously watching till she saw him suddenly shaken by a little joyous laugh as he turned back to the beginning of the letter, and looking at her above his spectacles, said, in a low tone, "What do you think, Susan?"
    Book 4 — Three Love Problems (74% in)
  • "No," said Caleb, gravely; "I am thinking that I could do a great turn for Fred Vincy.
    Book 4 — Three Love Problems (82% in)
  • The soul of man," said Caleb, with the deep tone and grave shake of the head which always came when he used this phrase—"The soul of man, when it gets fairly rotten, will bear you all sorts of poisonous toad-stools, and no eye can see whence came the seed thereof."
    Book 4 — Three Love Problems (84% in)
  • "It is the grandest profession in the world, Rosamond," said Lydgate, gravely.
    Book 5 — The Dead Hand (28% in)
  • "Very well, Doctor Grave-face," said Rosy, dimpling, "I will declare in future that I dote on skeletons, and body-snatchers, and bits of things in phials, and quarrels with everybody, that end in your dying miserably."
    Book 5 — The Dead Hand (28% in)
  • With Rosamond, on the other hand, he pouted and was wayward—nay, often uncomplimentary, much to her inward surprise; nevertheless he was gradually becoming necessary to her entertainment by his companionship in her music, his varied talk, and his freedom from the grave preoccupation which, with all her husband's tenderness and indulgence, often made his manners unsatisfactory to her, and confirmed her dislike of the medical profession.
    Book 5 — The Dead Hand (33% in)
  • Her face being, from her entrance, towards the chancel, even her shortsighted eyes soon discerned Will, but there was no outward show of her feeling except a slight paleness and a grave bow as she passed him.
    Book 5 — The Dead Hand (41% in)
  • The most innocent echo has an impish mockery in it when it follows a gravely persistent speaker, and this echo was not at all innocent; if it did not follow with the precision of a natural echo, it had a wicked choice of the words it overtook.
    Book 5 — The Dead Hand (74% in)
  • Mary in her turn was silent, wondering not at Mr. Farebrother's manner but at his tone, which had a grave restrained emotion in it.
    Book 5 — The Dead Hand (86% in)
  • He went straight from Mr. Garth's office to the warehouse, rightly feeling that the most respectful way in which he could behave to his father was to make the painful communication as gravely and formally as possible.
    Book 6 — The Widow and Wife (32% in)
  • Moreover, the decision would be more certainly understood to be final, if the interview took place in his father's gravest hours, which were always those spent in his private room at the warehouse.
    Book 6 — The Widow and Wife (32% in)
  • Farebrother has always been such a friend of ours; and Mary, I knew, would listen to him gravely; and he took it on himself quite readily.
    Book 6 — The Widow and Wife (38% in)
  • No, no, I am a grave old parson.
    Book 7 — Two Temptations (5% in)
  • "Can you not see, Rosamond," he began again, trying to be simply grave and not bitter, "that nothing can be so fatal as a want of openness and confidence between us?
    Book 7 — Two Temptations (29% in)
  • It was a strange reversal of attitudes: Fred's blond face and blue eyes, usually bright and careless, ready to give attention to anything that held out a promise of amusement, looking involuntarily grave and almost embarrassed as if by the sight of something unfitting; while Lydgate, who had habitually an air of self-possessed strength, and a certain meditativeness that seemed to lie behind his most observant attention, was acting, watching, speaking with that excited narrow...
    Book 7 — Two Temptations (37% in)
  • For should not grave and learn'd Experience That looks with the eyes of all the world beside, And with all ages holds intelligence, Go safer than Deceit without a guide!
    Book 7 — Two Temptations (50% in)
  • "Why, yes," said Caleb, looking up gravely, "there is something wrong—a stranger, who is very ill, I think.
    Book 7 — Two Temptations (59% in)
  • "Oh," said Caleb, bowing his head and waving his hand gravely.
    Book 7 — Two Temptations (63% in)
  • When the invitations had been accepted, she would tell Lydgate, and give him a wise admonition as to how a medical man should behave to his neighbors; for Rosamond had the gravest little airs possible about other people's duties.
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (23% in)
  • Lydgate at last seated himself, not in his usual chair, but in one nearer to Rosamond, leaning aside in it towards her, and looking at her gravely before he reopened the sad subject.
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (27% in)
  • But there were various subjects that Dorothea was trying to get clear upon, and she resolved to throw herself energetically into the gravest of all.
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (75% in)
  • "I did not believe that you would let any circumstance of my birth create a prejudice in you against me, though it was sure to do so in others," said Will, shaking his head backward in his old way, and looking with a grave appeal into her eyes.
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (79% in)
  • Then, after a little pause, she said, more gravely, bending her face before her father's, "If you are contented with Fred?"
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (97% in)

There are no more uses of "grave" flagged with this meaning in Middlemarch.

Typical Usage  (best examples)
Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary list — Onelook.com®
?  —27 uses
exact meaning not specified
  • "Dear Celia," said Dorothea, with tender gravity, "if you don't ever see me, it will not be my fault."
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (91% in)
  • Celia colored, and looked very grave.
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (5% in)
  • "I should not wish to have a husband very near my own age," said Dorothea, with grave decision.
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (30% in)
  • "Celia," said Dorothea, with emphatic gravity, "pray don't make any more observations of that kind."
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (37% in)
  • "In the first place," said the Rector, looking rather grave, "it would be nonsensical to expect that I could convince Brooke, and make him act accordingly.
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (56% in)
  • Celia had those light young feminine tastes which grave and weatherworn gentlemen sometimes prefer in a wife; but happily Mr. Casaubon's bias had been different, for he would have had no chance with Celia.
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (58% in)
  • Partly it was the reception of his own artistic production that tickled him; partly the notion of his grave cousin as the lover of that girl; and partly Mr. Brooke's definition of the place he might have held but for the impediment of indolence.
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (65% in)
  • Poor Mr. Casaubon had imagined that his long studious bachelorhood had stored up for him a compound interest of enjoyment, and that large drafts on his affections would not fail to be honored; for we all of us, grave or light, get our thoughts entangled in metaphors, and act fatally on the strength of them.
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (69% in)
  • Mr. Lydgate had the medical accomplishment of looking perfectly grave whatever nonsense was talked to him, and his dark steady eyes gave him impressiveness as a listener.
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (75% in)
  • "Are you beginning to dislike slang, then?" said Rosamond, with mild gravity.
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (82% in)
  • Nothing escaped Lydgate in Rosamond's graceful behavior: how delicately she waived the notice which the old man's want of taste had thrust upon her by a quiet gravity, not showing her dimples on the wrong occasion, but showing them afterwards in speaking to Mary, to whom she addressed herself with so much good-natured interest, that Lydgate, after quickly examining Mary more fully than he had done before, saw an adorable kindness in Rosamond's eyes.
    Book 1 — Miss Brooke (96% in)
  • The notion of murder was absurd: no motive was discoverable, the young couple being understood to dote on each other; and it was not unprecedented that an accidental slip of the foot should have brought these grave consequences.
    Book 2 — Old and Young (29% in)
  • Most of those who saw Fred riding out of Middlemarch in company with Bambridge and Horrock, on his way of course to Houndsley horse-fair, thought that young Vincy was pleasure-seeking as usual; and but for an unwonted consciousness of grave matters on hand, he himself would have had a sense of dissipation, and of doing what might be expected of a gay young fellow.
    Book 3 — Waiting for Death (9% in)
  • This was rather too much for poor Mary; sometimes it made her bilious, sometimes it upset her gravity.
    Book 3 — Waiting for Death (85% in)
  • Hence the brothers showed a thoroughly neutral gravity as they re-entered with Mr. Standish; but Solomon took out his white handkerchief again with a sense that in any case there would be affecting passages, and crying at funerals, however dry, was customarily served up in lawn.
    Book 4 — Three Love Problems (12% in)
  • I feel as sure as I sit here, Fred will turn out well—else why was he brought back from the brink of the grave?
    Book 4 — Three Love Problems (19% in)
  • "Walter, you never mean to tell me that you have allowed all this to go on without inquiry into Mr. Lydgate's prospects?" said Mrs. Bulstrode, opening her eyes with wider gravity at her brother, who was in his peevish warehouse humor.
    Book 4 — Three Love Problems (23% in)
  • That is the way with us when we have any uneasy jealousy in our disposition: if our talents are chiefly of the burrowing kind, our honey-sipping cousin (whom we have grave reasons for objecting to) is likely to have a secret contempt for us, and any one who admires him passes an oblique criticism on ourselves.
    Book 4 — Three Love Problems (35% in)
  • "Haven't you ambition enough to wish that your husband should be something better than a Middlemarch doctor?" said Lydgate, letting his hands fall on to his wife's shoulders, and looking at her with affectionate gravity.
    Book 5 — The Dead Hand (6% in)
  • Their eyes met, but with a strange questioning gravity.
    Book 6 — The Widow and Wife (10% in)
  • "I cannot conceive why you should speak of your cousin so contemptuously," said Rosamond, her fingers moving at her work while she spoke with a mild gravity which had a touch of disdain in it.
    Book 6 — The Widow and Wife (46% in)
  • The only incident he had strongly winced under had been an occasional encounter with Caleb Garth, who, however, had raised his hat with mild gravity.
    Book 7 — Two Temptations (94% in)
  • Lydgate turned, remembering where he was, and saw Dorothea's face looking up at him with a sweet trustful gravity.
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (31% in)
  • The childlike grave-eyed earnestness with which Dorothea said all this was irresistible—blent into an adorable whole with her ready understanding of high experience.
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (34% in)
  • "Would it were yesterday and I i' the grave, With her sweet faith above for monument" Rosamond and Will stood motionless—they did not know how long—he looking towards the spot where Dorothea had stood, and she looking towards him with doubt.
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (46% in)
  • She looked as if there were a spell upon her, keeping her motionless and hindering her from unclasping her hands, while some intense, grave yearning was imprisoned within her eyes.
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (77% in)
  • Mary knew quite well that her father had something particular to say: his eyebrows made their pathetic angle, and there was a tender gravity in his voice: these things had been signs to her when she was Letty's age.
    Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (97% in)

There are no more uses of "grave" in Middlemarch.

Typical Usage  (best examples)
Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary list — Onelook.com®