The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dig \Dig\ (d[i^]g), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dug (d[u^]g) or Digged (d[i^]gd); p. pr. & vb. n. Digging. -- Digged is archaic.] [OE. diggen, perh. the same word as diken, dichen (see Dike, Ditch); cf. Dan. dige to dig, dige a ditch; or (?) akin to E. 1st dag. [root]67.]
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To turn up, or delve in, (earth) with a spade or a hoe; to open, loosen, or break up (the soil) with a spade, or other sharp instrument; to pierce, open, or loosen, as if with a spade.
Be first to dig the ground.
--Dryden. To get by digging; as, to dig potatoes, or gold.
To hollow out, as a well; to form, as a ditch, by removing earth; to excavate; as, to dig a ditch or a well.
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To thrust; to poke. [Colloq.]
You should have seen children . . . dig and push their mothers under the sides, saying thus to them: Look, mother, how great a lubber doth yet wear pearls.
--Robynson (More's Utopia). -
To like; enjoy; admire. The whole class digs Pearl Jam. To dig down, to undermine and cause to fall by digging; as, to dig down a wall. To dig from, To dig out of, To dig out, To dig up, to get out or obtain by digging; as, to dig coal from or out of a mine; to dig out fossils; to dig up a tree. The preposition is often omitted; as, the men are digging coal, digging iron ore, digging potatoes. To dig in,
to cover by digging; as, to dig in manure.
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To entrench oneself so as to give stronger resistance; -- used of warfare or negotiating situations.
to dig in one's heels To offer stubborn resistance.
Dig \Dig\, v. i.
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To work with a spade or other like implement; to do servile work; to delve.
Dig for it more than for hid treasures.
--Job iii. 21.I can not dig; to beg I am ashamed.
--Luke xvi. 3. (Mining) To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
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To work hard or drudge; specif. (U. S.): To study ploddingly and laboriously. [Colloq.]
Peter dug at his books all the harder.
--Paul L. Ford. -
(Mach.) Of a tool: To cut deeply into the work because ill set, held at a wrong angle, or the like, as when a lathe tool is set too low and so sprung into the work.
To dig out, to depart; to leave, esp. hastily; decamp.
Usage examples of "to dig out".
To Vir's horror, it pulled experimentally at Rem's cheek, trying to dig out what it apparently thought was a particularly appetizing bit of flesh.
At last, as the ruddy sun rose above the horizon, Purga managed to dig out a hole big enough to shelter her body.
We're going to have to dig out pits for the charges and hold them down with pins hammered into the rock.
Here the elephant had stopped to dig out the juicy roots of an Bala palm and drop a pile of spongy yellow dung.
Eventually the research team goes to dig out the passengers and that now constitutes a threat.
It uses this finger for poking around under the bark of the trees it lives in to dig out the grubs which it feeds on.
Our itinerant Town Meeting caught up with him as he was trying to dig out the car keys without letting go of his prize.
The thing to do now was to dig out in front of the wheels, put in brush so that the chains could grip, and then push until the car was on the road.
He began clawing at his chest as if he wanted to dig out his heart.
Last time I thought I was within my rights to dig out as much as I could manage.