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Dig   /dɪg/   Listen
verb
Dig  v. t.  (past & past part. dug, digged is archaic; pres. part. 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."
5.
To like; enjoy; admire. "The whole class digs Pearl Jam." (Colloq.)
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,
(a)
to cover by digging; as, to dig in manure.
(b)
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  v. t.  (past & past part. dug, digged is archaic; pres. part. digging)  
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  v. i.  (past & past part. dug, digged is archaic; pres. part. digging)  
1.
To work with a spade or other like implement; to do servile work; to delve. "Dig for it more than for hid treasures." "I can not dig; to beg I am ashamed."
2.
(Mining) To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
3.
To work hard or drudge; specif. (U. S.): To study ploddingly and laboriously. (Colloq.) "Peter dug at his books all the harder."
4.
(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. (Slang, U. S.)



noun
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.
(Mining) Same as Gouge.
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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Dig" Quotes from Famous Books



... out a penny, all that he had, on a coarse bit of line, such as fishermen use; and, lastly, he came to me for some large pins: one of which he bent like a hook; explaining to me that he was going to dig for worms to put upon it, that he might fish. I shook my head, saying, "No." Jack nodded his head, and said "Yes." I said "bad;" Jack said "good;" and then I took up his little red hand, and pretended I was going to run the ...
— Kindness to Animals - Or, The Sin of Cruelty Exposed and Rebuked • Charlotte Elizabeth

... knelt there and took my delight of it and a rare, delicate good odour it was. For several days afterward I would not dig out the patch, for I said to myself, "What a cheerful claim it makes these early days, when most of the earth is still cold and dead, for a ...
— Great Possessions • David Grayson

... to myself, she's coming it too peeowerful strong altogether. The sooner I dig out the better for my wholesomes. However, let her went, she is wrathy. 'I came ...
— Nature and Human Nature • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... they had not looked at them long before they were convinced that they were their old neighbours. And so they really were. The painter who had drawn the rose-bush near the ruined house, had afterwards obtained permission to dig it up, and had given it to the architect, for finer roses had never been seen. The architect had planted it upon Thorwaldsen's grave, where it bloomed as an emblem of 'the beautiful' and yielded fragrant red rose-leaves to be carried as mementoes to ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen

... that we were studying we were drilled just as though we were actually at war. We were compelled to dig in, to find the range on certain objects and to direct imaginary artillery fire upon them. We had to find the range of airplanes that passed over us, just as though they were enemy planes. This drilling ...
— In the Flash Ranging Service - Observations of an American Soldier During His Service - With the A.E.F. in France • Edward Alva Trueblood


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