Dig (dig), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dug (dug) or Digged (digd); 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. √67.]
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.
Dryden.
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).
To dig down, to undermine and cause to fall by digging; as, to dig down a wall. --
To dig from, out of, out, or 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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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. (Mining)
To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
3.
To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously. [Cant, U.S.]
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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.]
© Webster 1913
Dig, v. i.
1.
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.
2. (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.]
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Dig, n.
1.
A tool for digging. [Dial. Eng.]
2.
An act of digging.
3.
An amount to be dug.
4. (Mining)
= Gouge.
© Webster 1913