INDEX:
1. water/hole/snow/sand
2. a long distance below the surface
3. how deep something is
4. not deep
RELATED WORDS
a deep colour : ↑ COLOUR
a deep sound or voice : ↑ LOW
see also
↑ THICK
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1. water/hole/snow/sand
▷ deep /diːp/ [adjective]
use this about water, holes, snow etc where the bottom is a long distance from the top :
▪ Be careful. The water’s quite deep here.
▪ The hole was deeper than they thought.
▪ Larry had a deep cut on his left leg.
get deeper
▪ The pond gets much deeper in the middle.
▷ bottomless /ˈbɒtəmləsǁˈbɑː-/ [adjective]
extremely deep and seeming to have no bottom :
▪ To the child the hole seemed like a bottomless pit.
▪ In the dream, I was falling and falling in a bottomless abyss.
▷ the depths /ðə ˈdepθs/ [plural noun]
the depths of the sea, a lake, the Earth etc are the very deepest parts of the sea, a large lake, or the Earth :
▪ Who knows what creatures live in the depths of the ocean?
▪ As I hiked around the volcano, clouds of steam rose up from the depths of the Earth.
2. a long distance below the surface
▷ deep /diːp/ [adverb]
▪ As we dug deeper, we uncovered a large wooden chest.
deep in/down/below etc something
▪ Turtles lay their eggs deep in the sand and leave them there until they hatch.
▪ Earthquakes are caused by movements deep below the Earth’s surface.
deep underground
▪ Crews are working deep underground to build the tunnel.
▷ deeply /ˈdiːpli/ [adverb]
deeply buried/submerged/embedded etc
a long way down from the surface
▪ They found rock with gold in it deeply buried beneath the earth’s surface.
▪ It is said that there is an ancient city deeply submerged in this part of the ocean.
▪ The road followed the deeply cut river valley.
3. how deep something is
▷ how deep /haʊ ˈdiːp/:
▪ How deep was the snow?
▪ I wasn’t sure how deep the water was and I didn’t want to swim out too far.
▷ 40 metres/100 feet etc deep /ˌfɔːʳti miːtəʳz ˈdiːp/ [adjective phrase]
use this to say exactly how deep something is :
▪ The pool is only five feet deep.
▪ The snow is over two metres deep.
ankle-deep/knee-deep etc
deep enough to reach your ankles, knees, etc
▪ After the floods, the streets had become ankle-deep streams.
▷ depth /depθ/ [countable/uncountable noun]
the distance from the surface to the bottom of a hole, river, sea etc :
depth of
▪ The depth of the pond varies with the rainfall.
▪ The plants need sand with a depth of at least 10 to 15 cm to grow.
4. not deep
▷ shallow /ˈʃæləʊ/ [adjective]
not very deep - use this especially about the water in a river, lake, swimming pool etc :
▪ The babies splashed around at the shallow end of the pool.
▪ The river is too shallow for our boat.
▷ not very deep /nɒt veri ˈdiːp/ [adjective]
if a river, lake, hole, etc is not very deep, the distance from the surface to the bottom is not very large :
▪ Come on in - the water isn’t very deep.
▪ The wound isn’t very deep so it shouldn’t take long to heal.