Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Cave   /keɪv/   Listen
noun
Cave  n.  
1.
A hollow place in the earth, either natural or artificial; a subterraneous cavity; a cavern; a den.
2.
Any hollow place, or part; a cavity. (Obs.) "The cave of the ear."
3.
(Eng. Politics) A coalition or group of seceders from a political party, as from the Liberal party in England in 1866.
Cave bear (Zool.), a very large fossil bear (Ursus spelaeus) similar to the grizzly bear, but large; common in European caves.
Cave dweller, a savage of prehistoric times whose dwelling place was a cave.
Cave hyena (Zool.), a fossil hyena found abundanty in British caves, now usually regarded as a large variety of the living African spotted hyena.
Cave lion (Zool.), a fossil lion found in the caves of Europe, believed to be a large variety of the African lion.
Bone cave. See under Bone.



verb
Cave  v. t.  (past & past part. caved; pres. part. caving)  To make hollow; to scoop out. (Obs.) "The mouldred earth cav'd the banke."



Cave  v. i.  
1.
To dwell in a cave. (Obs.)
2.
To fall in or down; as, the sand bank caved. Hence (Slang), to retreat from a position; to give way; to yield in a disputed matter.
To cave in.
(a)
To fall in and leave a hollow, as earth on the side of a well or pit.
(b)
To submit; to yield. (Slang)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Cave" Quotes from Famous Books



... Oracle of Delphi, hired Onatas, a contemporary of Polygnotus and Phidias, to make them a bronze replica of the old idol, from some old copy and from a drama of his own. The story may be true. When Pausanias went thither, in the second century after Christ, the cave and the fountain, and the sacred grove of oaks, and the altar outside, which was to be polluted with the blood of no victim—the only offerings being fruits and honey, and undressed wool—were still there. The statue was ...
— Literary and General Lectures and Essays • Charles Kingsley

... gorillas. Their bodies were small, ill- shaped, and squat. There were no swelling muscles, no abundant thews and wide-spreading shoulders. They exhibited, rather, an elemental economy of nature, such as the cave-men must have exhibited. But there was strength in those meagre bodies, the ferocious, primordial strength to clutch and gripe and tear and rend. When they spring upon their human prey they are known even to bend the victim backward and double its body till the back is broken. They possess neither ...
— The People of the Abyss • Jack London

... with the moon sending his shadow out ahead of him, the Fool walked overfield to the cave of the Wise Man. Timidly approaching, he peered through the entrance and found the Wise Man sitting still and alone, gazing into the ...
— A Williams Anthology - A Collection of the Verse and Prose of Williams College, 1798-1910 • Compiled by Edwin Partridge Lehman and Julian Park

... generation begets. But comes a day—though dearly the tough roots cling To common earth, branches with branches sing— And that obscure sign's read, or swift misread, By the indifferent woodman or his slave Disease, night-wandered from a fever-dripping cave. No chain's then needed for no fearful king, But light earth-fall on foot and hand ...
— Poems New and Old • John Freeman

... breast And arms; thence to the middle is of brass. And downward all beneath well-temper'd steel, Save the right foot of potter's clay, on which Than on the other more erect he stands, Each part except the gold, is rent throughout; And from the fissure tears distil, which join'd Penetrate to that cave. They in their course Thus far precipitated down the rock Form Acheron, and Styx, and Phlegethon; Then by this straiten'd channel passing hence Beneath, e'en to the lowest depth of all, Form there Cocytus, of whose lake (thyself Shall see it) I here give thee no account." Then ...
— The Divine Comedy • Dante


More quotes...



Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com