Graveyard

//ˈɡɹeɪvˌjɑɹd// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A tract of land in which the dead are buried.
  2. 2
    a tract of land used for burials wordnet
  3. 3
    A final storage place for collections of things that are no longer useful or useable.; The discard pile, in some trading card games. broadly, figuratively

    "Certain cards place other cards here because such cards might have abilities deemed too strong if they sent them to the graveyard instead."

  4. 4
    A final storage place for collections of things that are no longer useful or useable.; A team where players are sent when they are not useful, or a team where players become useless if sent there. broadly, figuratively
  5. 5
    A period very early in the morning in which there is very little activity. attributive

    "graveyard shift, graveyard slot, graveyard watch"

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    Synonym of suicide (“beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain”). US, slang

Synonyms

All synonyms
burial groundcemeterymemorial parkcemeteryboneyardboot hill

Example

More examples

"Freddy's been working the graveyard shift the past month, so he hasn't been able to see any of his friends who work normal hours."

Etymology

From grave + yard. Compare West Frisian begraafplak (“graveyard”), Dutch begraafplaats (“graveyard”), Norwegian gravplass (“graveyard”).

Related phrases

Graveyard of the AtlanticGraveyard of the Pacificaircraft graveyardautomobile graveyardelephants' graveyardflies' graveyardghost in the graveyardgraveyard chompersgraveyard coughgraveyard marketgraveyard of empiresgraveyard orbit

More for "graveyard"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.