GRAVE. (I) A place dug out of the earth in which a body is laid for burial (see DEAD, DISPOSAL OF THE; BURIAL). The verb "to grave," is used of the making of incisions in a hard surface (see ENGRAVING). (2) A title, now obsolete, of a local administrative official for a township in certain parts of York shire and Lincolnshire; it also appears in the form "grieve," which in Scotland and Northumberland is used for sheriff (q.v.), and for a bailiff or under-steward. It is probably connected with the German graf, count, and thus appears as the second part of many Teutonic titles, such as landgrave, burgrave and margrave. "Grieve," on the other hand, seems to be a form of O.E. gerefa, reeve; (3) To grave a ship's bottom is to clean it in a specially constructed dock, called a "graving dock."