"white man's grave" meaning in English

See white man's grave in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: white men's graves [plural]
Etymology: Referring to the high mortality rate among white missionaries and colonists in Africa, due to the tropical climate, diseases, and sanitation. Head templates: {{en-noun|white men's graves|head=white man's grave}} white man's grave (plural white men's graves)
  1. (archaic) Africa, or more specifically, western Africa or Sierra Leone. Tags: archaic Synonyms: White man's grave, White Man's Grave, some white man's grave, white men's grave
    Sense id: en-white_man's_grave-en-noun-ngZTPtA5 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Referring to the high mortality rate among white missionaries and colonists in Africa, due to the tropical climate, diseases, and sanitation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "white men's graves",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "white men's graves",
        "head": "white man's grave"
      },
      "expansion": "white man's grave (plural white men's graves)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1847, William Whitaker Shreeve, Sierra Leone: the principal British Colony on the Western Coast of Africa, Simmonds, page 2:",
          "text": "[...]for, until some great revolution in nature or some great and gradual human exertion takes place, it must ever prove the \"white man's grave,\" of which we have many lamentable proofs in the deaths of so many worthy and adventurous spirits who have fallen victims to research and humanity—Park, Peddie, Buchardt, Lander, Lang, Clapperton, Denham, Cooper, Thompson, &c. &c. &c.—all fallen through ferocity, treachery, or climate[...]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1861, Francisco Travassos Valdez, Six Years of a Traveller's Life in Western Africa, volume 1, Hurst and Blackett, page 277:",
          "text": "I was informed that, sometime since, a young man—I think his name was John Hooke, Brazilian consul—had retired thither, in hopes of avoiding the baleful influence of disease; but, alas! how futile are all human hopes and purposes—he, too, became a victim, and now lies in the white man's grave.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1899 June 17, Crito, “THE DEATH-RATE IN DUBLIN.”, in Notes and Queries, volume 99, number 77, page 468:",
          "text": "Not only this, but it is also much higher than the death-rate of such insanitary places as Borne, Venice, Hamburg, and Munich, and actually falls not far short of the rate recorded in that white man's grave Calcutta.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Africa, or more specifically, western Africa or Sierra Leone."
      ],
      "id": "en-white_man's_grave-en-noun-ngZTPtA5",
      "links": [
        [
          "Africa",
          "Africa"
        ],
        [
          "western",
          "western"
        ],
        [
          "Sierra Leone",
          "Sierra Leone"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) Africa, or more specifically, western Africa or Sierra Leone."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "White man's grave"
        },
        {
          "word": "White Man's Grave"
        },
        {
          "word": "some white man's grave"
        },
        {
          "word": "white men's grave"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "white man's grave"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Referring to the high mortality rate among white missionaries and colonists in Africa, due to the tropical climate, diseases, and sanitation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "white men's graves",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "white men's graves",
        "head": "white man's grave"
      },
      "expansion": "white man's grave (plural white men's graves)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1847, William Whitaker Shreeve, Sierra Leone: the principal British Colony on the Western Coast of Africa, Simmonds, page 2:",
          "text": "[...]for, until some great revolution in nature or some great and gradual human exertion takes place, it must ever prove the \"white man's grave,\" of which we have many lamentable proofs in the deaths of so many worthy and adventurous spirits who have fallen victims to research and humanity—Park, Peddie, Buchardt, Lander, Lang, Clapperton, Denham, Cooper, Thompson, &c. &c. &c.—all fallen through ferocity, treachery, or climate[...]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1861, Francisco Travassos Valdez, Six Years of a Traveller's Life in Western Africa, volume 1, Hurst and Blackett, page 277:",
          "text": "I was informed that, sometime since, a young man—I think his name was John Hooke, Brazilian consul—had retired thither, in hopes of avoiding the baleful influence of disease; but, alas! how futile are all human hopes and purposes—he, too, became a victim, and now lies in the white man's grave.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1899 June 17, Crito, “THE DEATH-RATE IN DUBLIN.”, in Notes and Queries, volume 99, number 77, page 468:",
          "text": "Not only this, but it is also much higher than the death-rate of such insanitary places as Borne, Venice, Hamburg, and Munich, and actually falls not far short of the rate recorded in that white man's grave Calcutta.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Africa, or more specifically, western Africa or Sierra Leone."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Africa",
          "Africa"
        ],
        [
          "western",
          "western"
        ],
        [
          "Sierra Leone",
          "Sierra Leone"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) Africa, or more specifically, western Africa or Sierra Leone."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "White man's grave"
    },
    {
      "word": "White Man's Grave"
    },
    {
      "word": "some white man's grave"
    },
    {
      "word": "white men's grave"
    }
  ],
  "word": "white man's grave"
}

Download raw JSONL data for white man's grave meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (ca09fec and c40eb85). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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