I. mine 1 S1 /maɪn/ BrE AmE pronoun [possessive form of ‘I’]
used by the person speaking or writing to refer to something that belongs to or is connected with himself or herself ⇨ my :
It was Glen’s idea, not mine.
‘Is that your car?’ ‘No, mine is parked over the road.’
You’ve got good legs – mine are too thin.
His English is better than mine.
of mine
I want you to meet an old friend of mine.
II. mine 2 S2 W3 BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: Vulgar Latin mina ]
1 . a deep hole or holes in the ground that people dig so that they can remove coal, gold, ↑ tin etc ⇨ mining
coal/gold/copper etc mine
one of the largest coal mines in the country
in/down a mine
the time when children used to work down the mines
2 . a type of bomb that is hidden just below the ground or under water and that explodes when it is touched:
They learnt how to lay mines (=put them in place) .
The ship struck a mine and sank.
⇨ ↑ landmine
3 . a mine of information (about/on something) someone or something that can give you a lot of information about a particular subject and that is therefore very useful or helpful:
The website is a mine of information about all forms of cancer.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ bomb a weapon that explodes:
The bomb exploded on a bus in Jerusalem during the city’s morning rush hour.
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Fifty-five people were injured in a car bomb attack in Baghdad.
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Morrow was convicted in 1998 of sending four letter bombs (=a small bomb hidden in a package and sent to someone in order to hurt or kill them) to government officials.
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People were worried that terrorists would try to detonate a dirty bomb (=a bomb that contains nuclear materials ) in the city centre.
▪ explosives bombs or substances that can cause explosions:
They used explosives to blow the door off the front of the building.
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The car was packed with 1,000 lbs of high explosives (=powerful explosives) .
▪ device a bomb – used especially in news reports:
Police found the device hidden in a suitcase.
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A bomb threat was received and the building was evacuated, but no device was found.
▪ IED a bomb that has been made using whatever materials are available, especially one used to blow up soldiers travelling through a place. IED is short for ‘improvised explosive device’:
Several soldiers were killed when an IED exploded as their convoy drove by.
▪ mine a type of bomb that is hidden just below the ground or under water, and that explodes when it is touched:
The fields are still full of landmines.
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The ship struck a mine and sank.
▪ grenade ( also hand grenade ) a small bomb that can be thrown by hand or fired from a special gun:
He pulled the pin and threw a grenade toward the enemy’s position.
III. mine 3 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle mined , present participle mining )
1 . [intransitive, transitive usually passive] to dig large holes in the ground in order to remove coal, gold etc:
Copper has been mined here since the sixteenth century.
This area has been mined for over 300 years.
mine for
The company first started mining for salt in 1851.
2 . [transitive usually passive] to hide bombs in the sea or under the ground:
All the roads leading to the village had been mined.