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Webster 1913 Edition

Dig

Dig

(dĭg)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Dug
(dŭg)
or
Digged
(dĭgd)
;
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).

Dig

,
Verb.
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.

Dig

,
Noun.
1.
A thrust; a punch; a poke;
as, a
dig
in the side or the ribs
. See
Dig
,
Verb.
T.
, 4.
[Colloq.]
2.
A plodding and laborious student.
[Cant, U.S.]

Webster 1828 Edition

Dig

DIG

,
Verb.
T.
pret. Digger or dug; pp. Digged or dug. [G.]
1.
To open and break or turn up the earth with a spade or other sharp instrument.
Be first to dig the ground.
2.
To excavate; to form an opening in the earth by digging and removing the loose earth; as, to dig a well, a pit or a mine.
3.
To pierce or open with a snout or by other means, as swine or moles.
4.
To pierce with a pointed instrument; to thrust in.
Still for the growing liver digged his breast.
To dig down, is to undermine and cause to fall by digging; as, to dig down a wall.
To dig out, or to dig from, is to obtain by digging; as, to dig coals from a mine; to dig out fossils. But the preposition is often omitted, and it is said, the men are digging coals, or digging iron ore. In such phrases, some word is understood; They are digging out ore, or digging for coals, or digging ore from the earth.
To dig up, is to obtain something from the earth by opening it, or uncovering the thing with a spade or other instrument, or to force out from the earth by a bar; as, to dig up a stone.

DIG

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To work with a spade or other piercing instrument; to do servile work.
I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. Luke 16.
2.
To work in search of; to search.
They dig for it, more than for hid treasures. Job 3.
To dig in, is to pierce with a spade or other pointed instrument.
Son of man, dig now in the wall. Ezekiel 8.
To dig through, to open a passage through; to make an opening from one side to the other.

Definition 2024

dig

dig

See also: dìg, DIG, and dIG

English

Verb

dig ‎(third-person singular simple present digs, present participle digging, simple past and past participle dug)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To move hard-packed earth out of the way, especially downward to make a hole with a shovel. Or to drill, or the like, through rocks, roads, or the like. More generally, to make any similar hole by moving material out of the way.
    They dug an eight-foot ditch along the side of the road.‎
    In the wintertime, heavy truck tires dig into the road, forming potholes.‎
    If the plane can't pull out of the dive it is in, it'll dig a hole in the ground.‎
    My seven-year-old son always digs a hole in the middle of his mashed potatoes and fills it with gravy before he starts to eat them.‎
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:
      Miss Thorn began digging up the turf with her lofter: it was a painful moment for me. “You might at least have tried me, Mrs. Cooke,” I said.
  2. (transitive) To get by digging; to take from the ground; often with up.
    to dig potatoes;   to dig up gold‎
  3. (mining) To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
  4. (US, slang, dated) To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously.
    • Paul L. Ford
      Peter dug at his books all the harder.
  5. (figuratively) To investigate, to research, often followed by out or up.
    to dig up evidence;   to dig out the facts‎
    • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
      Digging deeper, the invention of eyeglasses is an elaboration of the more fundamental development of optics technology. The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
  6. To thrust; to poke.
    • Robynson (More's Utopia)
      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.
  7. (volleyball) To defend against an attack hit by the opposing team by successfully passing the ball
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

dig ‎(plural digs)

  1. An archeological investigation.
  2. (US, colloquial, dated) A plodding and laborious student.
  3. A thrust; a poke.
    He guffawed and gave me a dig in the ribs after telling his latest joke.
  4. (Britain, dialect, dated) A tool for digging.
  5. (volleyball) A defensive pass of the ball that has been attacked by the opposing team
See also
Synonyms
Translations

Etymology 2

From African American Vernacular English; due to lack of writing of slave speech, etymology is difficult to trace, but it has been suggested that it is from Wolof dëgg, dëgga ‎(“to understand, to appreciate”).[1] It has also been suggested that it is from Irish dtuig.[2] Others do not propose a distinct etymology, instead considering this a semantic shift of the existing English term (compare dig in/dig into).[3]

Verb

dig ‎(third-person singular simple present digs, present participle digging, simple past and past participle dug)

  1. (slang) To understand or show interest in.
    You dig?
  2. (slang) To appreciate, or like.
    Baby, I dig you.
Translations

References

  1. ↑ Smitherman, Geneva (2000), Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner (revised ed.), Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-96919-0
  2. ↑ Random House Unabridged, 2001
  3. ↑ eg: OED, "dig", from ME vt diggen

Anagrams

Danish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /daɪ/
  • Rhymes: -aɪ

Pronoun

dig ‎(nominative du)

  1. (personal) you (2nd person singular object pronoun, informal)

Usage notes

Also used as reflexive pronoun.

See also

Lojban

Rafsi

dig

  1. rafsi of dirgo.

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse þik, from Proto-Germanic *þek, from Proto-Indo-European *te-ge.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dɛj/
  • Rhymes: -ɛj

Alternative forms

  • dej (strongly colloquial)

Pronoun

dig

  1. you (objective case, singular)
    Jag såg dig aldrig där
    I never saw you there
  2. reflexive case of du: compare yourself
    Skulle du vilja lära dig jonglera?
    Would you like to learn how to juggle?
    Skar du dig på kniven?
    Did you cut yourself on the knife?

See also

  • dig själv

Usage notes

Note that some verbs have special senses when used reflexively. For example, do not confuse du lär dig att... ("you learn to...") [reflexive] with jag lär dig att... ("I teach you to...") or du lär dig själv att... ("you teach yourself to..."). Here, lär means teach(es) if it is not reflexive, but learn(s) if it is reflexive. Thus, the separate pronoun "dig själv" is needed when object and subject agree, even though the verb should not be used in the reflexive case.

Also note that in the imperative, when there's usually no explicit subject given, the "själv" is dropped.

Declension

Etymology

From Middle English diggen ‎(“to dig”), alteration (possibly due to Danish dige) of Old English dīcian ‎(“to dig a ditch, to mound up earth”) (compare Old English dīcere ‎(“digger”)) from dīc, dīċ ‎(“dike, ditch”) from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz, *dīkiją ‎(“pool, puddle”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰīgʷ-, *dʰeygʷ- ‎(“to stab, dig”). Additionally, Middle English diggen may derive from an unrecorded suffixed variant, *dīcgian. Akin to Danish dige ‎(“to dig, raise a dike”), Swedish dika ‎(“to dig ditches”). Related to Middle French diguer ‎(“to dig”), from Old French dikier, itself a borrowing of the same Germanic root (from Middle Dutch dijc). More at ditch, dike.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dɪɡ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪɡ

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