cave

Less common meanings

7. 7
   nounobsolete

   A hollow place or part of any kind; a cavity.

   Note

   An older, wider cave that needed no rock at all. It meant any hollow, including those of the body, as in Francis Bacon's phrase "the cave of the ear" (1626). The sense is obsolete. A modern writer who wants it uses cavity or hollow, and reads Bacon's phrase as the general sense rather than a metaphor.

8. 8
   pillar miningverbtransitive

   In room-and-pillar mining, to remove a rock deposit by breaking down the pillar that had been supporting it.

   Once the room was mined out, the crew caved the remaining pillars to bring down the ore they had been holding up.

   Engineers decided to cave the pillar only after every worker had left the section.

   Note

   A deliberate collapse rather than an accident. In room-and-pillar workings, the pillar holding a deposit is broken down so the rock comes free. The deposit is the object: miners cave it by knocking out the posts. That separates this sense from the plain verb of collapse, where the thing falling is the subject. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Removing supporting pillars in room-and-pillar mining deliberately allows the supported rock to collapse. en.wikipedia.org
   • The mining sense can take the deposit as its object and describe releasing it by removing supports. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   verbobsolete

   To work over mine tailings in order to dress out small pieces of marketable ore.

   As an indication of the miners' desperation in these years, the free miners of Wensley lowered themselves to caving for scraps of ore.

   1999, Andy Wood, The Politics of Social Conflict: The Peak Country

   Note

   A word for scavenging rather than mining, now obsolete. Andy Wood's The Politics of Social Conflict: The Peak Country, 1520–1770 (1999) treats it as a mark of hardship: the free miners of Wensley "lowered themselves to caving for scraps of ore." Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • This obsolete sense concerns recovering ore from tailings. en.wiktionary.org
   • Andy Wood wrote The Politics of Social Conflict: The Peak Country, 1520–1770, first published in 1999. assets.cambridge.org
   • Wood describes the free miners of Wensley caving for scraps of ore as evidence of hardship, using the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    verbobsolete

    To live in a cave as one's dwelling place.

    although perhaps / It may be heard at court that such as we / Cave here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time / May make some stronger head

    a. 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline

    Note

    Shakespeare's verb for a whole way of life. In Cymbeline the exiles call themselves men who "cave here, hunt here," pairing it with hunt as a plain verb of how they live. It is obsolete now. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • William Shakespeare wrote Cymbeline. gutenberg.org
    • In Cymbeline, Belarius describes his group's life with the words "cave here, hunt here," pairing dwelling in a cave with hunting. gutenberg.org
11. 11
    nounrare

    A collapse, such as the falling in of a mine roof or tunnel.

    The "breasts" of marble which unite the opposite lateral walls have been left standing in order to prevent a possible cave of the wall on either side.

    1885, Angelo Heilprin, Town Geology: The Lesson of the Philadelphia Rocks
12. 12
    verbrare

    To hollow out, or to weaken something by wearing away the support beneath it.
13. 13
    nounslang

    A figurative slang term for the vagina, picturing it as a hollow opening.

    Then without a word she lay on her back in the bed, her dark blond pubic hair rising about her dark wet cave like dried brush about a hidden spring.

    1976, Chester Himes, My Life of Absurdity
14. 14
    nounslang

    A faction that breaks away from a larger political party or group over a particular issue.

    Without joining the cave, Hyde had abstained both in December 1956 and May 1957.

    1964, Leon D. Epstein, British Politics in the Suez Crisis
15. 15
    noun

    An unused region of a program's memory into which extra code can be inserted, often to change how the software behaves.
16. 16
    noun

    A shielded enclosure in which nuclear experiments can be carried out safely.
17. 17
    noun

    Loose debris, especially broken rock, that falls into a drill hole and interferes with the drilling.
18. 18
    interjectiondated

    Called out as a warning to look out or beware, especially that a teacher or other authority figure is approaching.

    Ssh! Cave! Mum's the word! Not 'arf, or what?

    1989, Ben Elton, Richard Curtis