gravedigger

Thân thiện

A gravedigger carefully prepares a new grave in the cemetery.

Definition

Noun: A person whose occupation is to dig graves. This term specifically refers to an individual who prepares burial sites in a cemetery as a job.

Usage

The word "gravedigger" is used to identify a person's profession. It is a straightforward, literal term. * The gravedigger finished preparing the plot before the funeral procession arrived. * In the past, the village gravedigger was a familiar and somber figure.

Examples

• The old gravedigger had worked at the cemetery for over forty years.
• The play's character, a philosophical gravedigger, muses on death and life.

Advanced Usage

• Figurative Use: Rarely, "gravedigger" can be used metaphorically to describe someone or something that causes the end or downfall of an institution or idea.
  • Historians argue that corruption was the gravedigger of the ancient empire.

Variants and Related Words

• Gravedigging (noun): The act or occupation of digging graves.
  • Gravedigging is physically demanding work.

Synonyms

• Sexton: A church officer who often has duties including bell-ringing and grave-digging.
• Burial attendant: A more formal, modern term.

Antonyms

• There is no direct antonym for this specific profession. Contextual opposites might include midwife (associated with birth) or life-saver.

Related Phrases

• To dig one's own grave: (Idiom) To be the cause of one's own failure or downfall. This idiom is related in imagery but not in professional meaning.
  • By ignoring the warnings, he was digging his own grave.

Học thuật

Noun

1. a person who earns a living by digging graves