I. ˈdig verb
( dug ˈdəg ; or archaic digged ˈdigd ; dug or archaic digged ; digging ; digs )
Etymology: Middle English diggen, perhaps of imitative origin
intransitive verb
1. : to turn up, loosen, or remove earth : delve
dig for buried treasure
digging in the garden
2. : to work hard or laboriously : drudge
digging away at his geometry lessons
3.
a. : to penetrate below the surface in search of something hidden or buried : pierce deeply — used with into
dig into the facts of a case
digging into the history of mankind
b. : to advance or progress by or as if by removing or pushing aside material : burrow
if we dig down through the strata of English historical writing — B.R.Redman
4. slang : lodge , dwell
this is the inn where I dig — John Galsworthy
5. of a tool : to cut deeply into material being worked on because of some fault (as being ill-set or held at a wrong angle)
6. : to run hard
the runner on first base digs for second with the first pitch
transitive verb
1. : to break up (earth) with a hard implement (as a spade, hoe, mattock) : pierce, loosen, or turn over (the soil)
dig a field for planting
2.
a. : to bring to the surface or get by digging : unearth
dig potatoes
b. : to bring to light or out of hiding — often used with out or up
dig up facts
3. : to hollow out (as a well) : form (as a ditch) by removing earth : excavate
dig a trench
dig a foundation
4. : to drive down so as to penetrate : thrust
dug his fingers into the soft earth
5. : poke , prod
he dug me in the ribs with his sharp little elbow
6. slang
a. : to listen to or look at : pay attention to
dig that fancy hat
b. : understand , appreciate
what I don't dig over there is the British money — Jimmy Durante
c. : like , admire
a very corny gag, but people seem to dig it — Down Beat
Synonyms:
dig , delve , spade , grub , excavate , exhume , and disinter mean, in common, to use a spade or similar implement in breaking up the ground to a point below the surface and turning or removing the earth or bringing to the surface anything below it. dig , the commonest of the terms, implies a loosening of earth around or under something so as to bring it to the surface or any disturbing of earth to penetrate it in some way
dig worms
dig for gold
dig a bone up
dig into a cliff
delve implies more commonly the use of a spade or efforts comparable to the use of one and suggests strongly a laborious digging around in or in among something
lab scientists delve into the secrets of nature — Investor's Reader
to delve into the mysteries of prehistoric man — E.J.Sawyer
delve beneath these superficialities — William Petersen
delve among the old records in the city archives — F.L.Pattee
spade may apply to the manual preparation of soil for planting, to turning over and loosening the ground
spade the garden early
spade in the fertilizer
grub usually does not imply deep digging but rather suggests laborious dirty digging around in surface soil or dirt, or any dirty, groveling work resembling it
scorning to grub the soil, they live off the produce of their herds — Jean & Franc Shor
a group of ragpickers haphazardly grubbing about among a pile of human refuse — Times Literary Supplement
grubbing around Etruscan cemeteries — Robert Graves
he grubs for the answers in the memory heap of five decades — Time
excavate implies making a hollow in, into, or through something, usually by spade, shovel or machine
the powerful stream … excavated a new channel — American Guide Series: Washington
an expedition of the Witte Memorial Museum of San Antonio excavated caves, the contents of which revealed the culture of a sedentary people — American Guide Series: Texas
excavate a cliff
exhume implies the removal of something buried
the ungrateful task of exhuming antiquities — Americas
trees buried by the gray unweathered outwash gravels and exhumed through erosion of the valley train by the Rio Ameghino — R.L.Nichols & M.M.Miller
disinter implies the exhuming of something buried by human hands
the urns disinterred at Walsingham — A.T.Quiller-Couch
bodies were disinterred from battlefields — American Guide Series: North Carolina
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- dig into
II. noun
( -s )
1.
a. : thrust , poke
gave the horse a good dig in the side
b. : a verbal thrust : a cutting remark especially containing a veiled allusion
why all the small ungracious digs and hedging of good report with evil suspicion — Philip Burnham
2. : a plodding and laborious student : grind
3. dialect England : a tool for digging
4.
[by shortening]
: digger 4
5. digs plural , Britain : diggings 3b
6. : a site at which an archaeological excavation is made ; also : the excavation itself and the conduct of the project as a whole
on their return from some fruitful dig in the Nile valley — David Garnett
7. : a push of the ball of the foot against the floor in dancing
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English digge
now dialect England : duck
IV. abbreviation
digest