Dig /(dĭg)/

Dig

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Dug; p. pr. & vb. n. Digging

  1. 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.
  2. To get by digging; as, to dig potatoes, or gold.
  3. To hollow out, as a well; to form, as a ditch, by removing earth; to excavate; as, to dig a ditch or a well.
  4. 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).
  5. To like; enjoy; admire. [Colloq.]

Phrases & Compounds
To dig down
to undermine and cause to fall by digging; as, to dig down a wall.
To dig from
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.
to dig in one's heels
To offer stubborn resistance.

Dig

v. i.
  1. 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.
  2. To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore. (Mining)
  3. To work hard or drudge; [U. S.]
    Peter dug at his books all the harder.
    — Paul L. Ford.
  4. 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. (Mach.)

Phrases & Compounds
To dig out
to depart; to leave, esp. hastily; decamp.

dig

v. t.
  1. To understand; as, do you dig me?. [slang]
  2. To notice; to look at; as, dig that crazy hat!. [slang]
  3. To appreciate and enjoy; as, he digs classical music as well as rock. [slang]

Dig

n.
  1. A thrust; a punch; a poke; as, a dig in the side or the ribs. See Dig, v. t., 4. [Colloq.]
  2. A plodding and laborious student. [Cant, U.S.]
  3. A tool for digging. [Dial. Eng.]
  4. An act of digging.
  5. An amount to be dug.
  6. same as Gouge. (Mining)
  7. a critical and sometimes sarcastic or insulting remark, but often good-humored; as, celebrities at a roast must suffer through countless digs.
  8. An archeological excavation site.