graveyard

[ greyv-yahrd ]

noun

1. a burial ground, often associated with smaller rural churches, as distinct from a larger urban or public cemetery.
2. Informal. graveyard shift.
3. a place in which obsolete or derelict objects are kept:

   an automobile graveyard.

graveyard

/ ˈɡreɪvˌjɑːd /

noun

1. a place for graves; a burial ground, esp a small one or one in a churchyard

Word History and Origins

Origin of graveyard¹

First recorded in 1765–75; grave ¹ + yard ²

Example Sentences

But however Skynet-1A then got shifted to its present position, it was ultimately allowed to die in an awkward place when really it should have been put in an "orbital graveyard".

From BBC

Burr Oak is a poorer graveyard than both of those, and lacks the trees, plants, and waterways that can be found in the whiter and wealthier cemeteries.

From Slate

I also hadn’t done my hearing any favors by working the graveyard shift at a nightclub during college—eight uninterrupted hours at a stretch of noise exposure that vastly exceeded safe levels.

From Slate

So exactly how much of a bowlers' graveyard was the pitch for the first Test?

From BBC

A poem carved on the stone includes the line, "For tyger fierce took life away"; a detail which has regularly drawn curious onlookers to the graveyard.

From BBC

Related Words

• burial ground
• cemetery