gravedigger

Everyday

1. A person whose job is to dig graves in a cemetery for burying the dead. tree →
2. Someone or something that brings about the end of something (figurative). tree →

In the lessons

In stories, history and churchyards; in adult life it is a real, respectful job. Phrases: the old gravedigger, the gravedigger's spade.

Examples

• The gravedigger worked quietly in the churchyard. tree →
• Nowadays most gravediggers use small diggers. tree →
• In the story the gravedigger found a strange box. tree →
• The gravedigger tidied the flowers after the funeral. tree →
• Being a gravedigger is hard but important work. tree →
• The village gravedigger also looked after the church garden. tree →
• Deirdre kept sitting on the brink of the grave, constantly asking the gravediggers to dig the pit wide and free. tree →

Note

One word, sometimes written grave-digger. Plural gravediggers. Related: grave, cemetery, churchyard, funeral.