Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Delve
Delve
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Delved
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Delving
.] [AS.
delfan
to dig; akin to OS. bidelban
to bury, D. delven
to dig, MHG. telben
, and possibly to E. dale
. Cf. Delf
a mine.] 1.
To dig; to open (the ground) as with a spade.
Delve
of convenient depth your thrashing floor. Dryden.
2.
To dig into; to penetrate; to trace out; to fathom.
I can not
delve
him to the root. Shakespeare
Delve
,Verb.
I.
To dig or labor with a spade, or as with a spade; to labor as a drudge.
Delve
may I not: I shame to beg. Wyclif (Luke xvi. 3).
Webster 1828 Edition
Delve
DELVE
,Verb.
T.
1.
To dig; to open the ground with a spade.Delve of convenient depth your thrashing floor.
2.
To fathom; to sound; to penetrate.I cannot delve him to the root.
DELVE
,Noun.
Delve of coals, a quantity of fossil coals dug.
Definition 2025
delve
delve
English
Verb
delve (third-person singular simple present delves, present participle delving, simple past delved or (obsolete) dalf, past participle delved or (obsolete) dolven)
- (intransitive) To dig the ground, especially with a shovel.
- 1381, John Ball
- When Adam dalf and Eve span, / Who was then a gentleman?
- Dryden
- Delve of convenient depth your thrashing floor.
- 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter XXIX
- I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my might - it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands; the wood commenced cracking about the screws; I was on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and bending down.
- 1381, John Ball
- (transitive, intransitive) To search thoroughly and carefully for information, research, dig into, penetrate, fathom, trace out
- 1609-11, Shakespeare, Cymbeline, King of Britain
- I cannot delve him to the root.
- 1943, Emile C. Tepperman, Calling Justice, Inc.!
- She was intensely eager to delve into the mystery of Mr. Joplin and his brief case.
- 1609-11, Shakespeare, Cymbeline, King of Britain
- (transitive, intransitive) To dig, to excavate.
- ca. 1260, Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend
- And then they made an oratory behind the altar, and would have dolven for to have laid the body in that oratory ...
- 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, chapter IV
- Let him take off his plates and delve himself, if delving must be done.
- ca. 1260, Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend
Synonyms
- (to dig the ground): dig
- (to search thoroughly): investigate, research
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to dig in the ground
to search carefully for information
Noun
delve (plural delves)
- (now rare) A pit or den.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.iii:
- the wise Merlin whylome wont (they say) / To make his wonne, low vnderneath the ground, / In a deepe delue, farre from the vew of day [...].
-
1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage 2015, p. 75:
- I put the clods on top the delve and gave it all a good thumping down with my feet.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.iii: