All 50 Uses of

grave
in
David Copperfield

'You have a good deal of intelligence for a little fellow,' he said, with a grave smile that belonged to him, 'and you understood me very well, I see.
Chpt 4-6 *

grave = serious and solemn

'Do you think it did Edward harm, Clara?' asked Mr. Murdstone, gravely.†
Chpt 4-6

gravely = in a serious and solemn manner

He walked me up to my room slowly and gravely — I am certain he had a delight in that formal parade of executing justice — and when we got there, suddenly twisted my head under his arm.†
Chpt 4-6

'No, Copperfield,' says he, gravely, 'that's not a dog.†
Chpt 4-6

He is better able to judge of it than I am; for I very well know that I am a weak, light, girlish creature, and that he is a firm, grave, serious man.
Chpt 7-9

grave = serious and solemn

'I think, Clara,' said Mr. Murdstone, in a low grave voice, 'that there may be better and more dispassionate judges of such a question than you.'
Chpt 7-9

He then gravely repaired to another table, where his sister sat herself at her desk.†
Chpt 10-12

gravely = in a serious and solemn manner

'Yes,' said my aunt, with a grave look, and her forefinger held up.
Chpt 13-15

grave = serious and solemn

Though she was just as sharp that day as on the day before, and was in and out about the donkeys just as often, and was thrown into a tremendous state of indignation, when a young man, going by, ogled Janet at a window (which was one of the gravest misdemeanours that could be committed against my aunt's dignity), she seemed to me to command more of my respect, if not less of my fear.†
Chpt 13-15

gravest = most important or most serious

Mr. Dick took his finger out of his mouth, on this hint, and stood among the group, with a grave and attentive expression of face.
Chpt 13-15

grave = serious and solemn

I went, accompanied by Mr. Wickfield, to the scene of my future studies — a grave building in a courtyard, with a learned air about it that seemed very well suited to the stray rooks and jackdaws who came down from the Cathedral towers to walk with a clerkly bearing on the grass-plot — and was introduced to my new master, Doctor Strong.
Chpt 16-18

Mr. Wickfield interposed, gravely.†
Chpt 16-18

gravely = in a serious and solemn manner

'Compensation to the lady, sir?' asked Mr. Wickfield gravely.†
Chpt 16-18

It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honour and good faith of the boys, and an avowed intention to rely on their possession of those qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which worked wonders.†
Chpt 16-18

'To be sure he has,' retorted Mr. Dick, nodding his head gravely.†
Chpt 16-18

'And I said' added Mr. Wickfield gravely, 'abroad.†
Chpt 19-21

'Well, Mas'r Davy, in a general way, so 't would be,' he returned; 'but look'ee here, Mas'r Davy,' lowering his voice, and speaking very gravely.†
Chpt 22-24

Meanwhile he took the mutton off the gridiron, and gravely handed it round.†
Chpt 28-30

I returned to my fireside, and was musing, half gravely and half laughing, on the character of Mr. Micawber and the old relations between us, when I heard a quick step ascending the stairs.†
Chpt 28-30

'Ah, Trot!' said my aunt, shaking her head, and smiling gravely; 'blind, blind, blind!'†
Chpt 34-36

Miss Clarissa looked at Miss Lavinia, and shook her head gravely.†
Chpt 40-42

Of our kneeling down together, side by side; of Dora's trembling less and less, but always clasping Agnes by the hand; of the service being got through, quietly and gravely; of our all looking at each other in an April state of smiles and tears, when it is over; of my young wife being hysterical in the vestry, and crying for her poor papa, her dear papa.†
Chpt 43-45

In the silence that ensued, my aunt walked gravely up to Mr. Dick, without at all hurrying herself, and gave him a hug and a sounding kiss.†
Chpt 43-45

If I looked as gravely at him as Traddles did, he must have found our company by no means inspiriting.†
Chpt 49-51

'Theer's one thing furder, Mas'r Davy,' said he, putting his hand in his breast-pocket, and gravely taking out the little paper bundle I had seen before, which he unrolled on the table.†
Chpt 49-51

'I said that theer was on'y one thing furder,' he proceeded with a grave smile, when he had made up his little bundle again, and put it in his pocket; 'but theer was two.
Chpt 49-51

grave = serious and solemn

Copperfield,' said Mr. Micawber, gravely, 'I hope I see you well?'†
Chpt 52-54

gravely = in a serious and solemn manner

We proposed that the family should have their passage and their outfit, and a hundred pounds; and that Mr. Micawber's arrangement for the repayment of the advances should be gravely entered into, as it might be wholesome for him to suppose himself under that responsibility.†
Chpt 52-54

The potential waiter waved him away, and turned, gravely, to me.†
Chpt 58-60

I could think of the past now, gravely, but not bitterly; and could contemplate the future in a brave spirit.†
Chpt 58-60

'A prosperous one?' said I. 'Trot,' returned my aunt gravely, 'I can't say.†
Chpt 58-60

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Grouped by 2 Meanings

Uses with a meaning too common or too rare to warrant foucs:

There is something strange to me, even now, in the reflection that he never saw me; and something stranger yet in the shadowy remembrance that I have of my first childish associations with his white grave-stone in the churchyard, and of the indefinable compassion I used to feel for it lying out alone there in the dark night, when our little parlour was warm and bright with fire and candle, and the doors of our house were — almost cruelly, it seemed to me sometimes — bolted and locked against it.†
Chpt 1-3

I immediately went into an explanation how I had never seen my own father; and how my mother and I had always lived by ourselves in the happiest state imaginable, and lived so then, and always meant to live so; and how my father's grave was in the churchyard near our house, and shaded by a tree, beneath the boughs of which I had walked and heard the birds sing many a pleasant morning.†
Chpt 1-3

She had lost her mother before her father; and where her father's grave was no one knew, except that it was somewhere in the depths of the sea.†
Chpt 1-3

Something — I don't know what, or how — connected with the grave in the churchyard, and the raising of the dead, seemed to strike me like an unwholesome wind.†
Chpt 1-3

As he repudiated this suggestion, however, with a jerk of his head, and once more confirmed his previous request by saying, with profound gravity, 'Barkis is willin'.†
Chpt 4-6

I thought of my father's grave in the churchyard, by our house, and of my mother lying there beneath the tree I knew so well.†
Chpt 7-9

As Peggotty was wont to tell me, long ago, the followers of my father to the same grave were made ready in the same room.†
Chpt 7-9

We stand around the grave.†
Chpt 7-9

The mother who lay in the grave, was the mother of my infancy; the little creature in her arms, was myself, as I had once been, hushed for ever on her bosom.†
Chpt 7-9

'There's a friend!' murmured Mr. Peggotty, with a grave toss of his head.†
Chpt 10-12

See, how our house and church are lessening in the distance; how the grave beneath the tree is blotted out by intervening objects; how the spire points upwards from my old playground no more, and the sky is empty!†
Chpt 10-12

After which, he was grave for a minute or so.†
Chpt 10-12

'Now, Mr. Dick,' said my aunt, with her grave look, and her forefinger up as before, 'I am going to ask you another question.†
Chpt 13-15

And I have felt — we both have felt, I may say; my sister being fully in my confidence — that it is right you should receive this grave and dispassionate assurance from our lips.'†
Chpt 13-15

But I know that when I saw her turn round, in the grave light of the old staircase, and wait for us, above, I thought of that window; and I associated something of its tranquil brightness with Agnes Wickfield ever afterwards.†
Chpt 13-15

Repeating 'no', and 'not the least', and other short assurances to the same purport, Doctor Strong jogged on before us, at a queer, uneven pace; and we followed: Mr. Wickfield, looking grave, I observed, and shaking his head to himself, without knowing that I saw him.†
Chpt 16-18

As I went up to my airy old room, the grave shadow of the staircase seemed to fall upon my doubts and fears, and to make the past more indistinct.†
Chpt 16-18

I thought afresh of the grave in the churchyard, underneath the tree: and it seemed as if the house were dead too, now, and all connected with my father and mother were faded away.†
Chpt 16-18

As I think of them going up and down before those schoolroom windows — the Doctor reading with his complacent smile, an occasional flourish of the manuscript, or grave motion of his head; and Mr. Dick listening, enchained by interest, with his poor wits calmly wandering God knows where, upon the wings of hard words — I think of it as one of the pleasantest things, in a quiet way, that I have ever seen.†
Chpt 16-18

Definitions:

(1) (grave as in: Her manner was grave.)
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
(2) (meaning too common or rare to warrant focus)
meaning too common or too rare to warrant focus:

Better known meanings of grave and gravity:
- grave -- a place where a dead body is buried
- gravity -- in the sense of physics to refer to the force of attraction between all masses in the universe--especially the force that causes things to fall toward the earth
Less common meanings of grave:
- death -- as in "A message from beyond the grave."
- describing a color as dark
- to sculpt with a chisel
- to clean and coat the bottom of a wooden ship with pitch
- grave accent -- a punctuation mark (`) that is used in some non-English languages, and that is placed over some letters of the alphabet to tell how they are pronounced.
- grave musical direction -- in a slow and solemn manner

Page Numbers by Book Edition

grave in David Copperfield

grave
in
David Copperfield