greave

• enPR: grēv, IPA^(key): /ɡɹiːv/
• Homophone: grieve
• Rhymes: -iːv

From Middle English greve, from Old English grǣfe, grǣfa (“bush, bramble, grove, thicket, copse, brush-wood (for burning), fuel”). Cognate with Scots greve, greave (“grove”). Compare also Proto-Germanic *grainiz (“twig”), of unknown origin, whence Old Norse grein (“branch, bough”). Closely related to Old English grāf, grāfa (“grove”). See grove.

greave (plural greaves)

1. (obsolete) A bush; a tree; a grove.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

2. (obsolete) A bough; a branch.

From Middle English greve, greyve, from Old English grǣfa, grēfa (“pit, cave, hole, grave, trench”), from Proto-Germanic *grōbō (“pit, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scratch, scrape”). Cognate with North Frisian groop (“pit, sewer, gutter”), Dutch groef (“pit, hole, gutter”), German Grube (“pit, hole”), Icelandic gröf (“pit, grave”).

greave (plural greaves)

1. (obsolete) A ditch or trench.

From Middle English greve, grayve, from Old French greve (“shin”), of uncertain origin; possibly from Egyptian Arabic جورب‎ (“stocking, leg cover”).

• greeve

greave (plural greaves)

1. A piece of armour that protects the leg, especially the shin.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:greave.

From greaves (“residue left after animal fat has been rendered”).

greave (third-person singular simple present greaves, present participle greaving, simple past and past participle greaved)

1. (nautical, transitive) To clean (a ship's bottom); to grave.

• greaves (“residue left after animal fat has been rendered”)

• Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language

• regave