Gravelike

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having the silent, cold, or solemn quality associated with a burial place or tomb
2. Suggesting the stillness and chill of a grave, as in a dark and lifeless atmosphere
3. Resembling a grave in its gloom, quietness, or sense of death and burial

Etymology: "Gravelike" is a plain compound: the noun "grave," meaning a place for burying the dead, joined to the suffix "-like," which turns a noun into an adjective meaning resembling or having the character of that thing. Put together, it describes something that resembles a tomb, whether in its silence, its coldness, or its sense of being sealed off from the living. The base word carries the older story. "Grave" comes from Old English "græf," a pit or trench dug in the ground, and it was only later that the sense narrowed to a burial place for the dead. The suffix "-like" comes from Old English "-lic," which goes back to a word for body or form, so "gravelike" literally means having the form of a grave.

Synonyms: sepulchral, funereal, deathlike

Antonyms: lively