# dig

Pronunciation: say "DIG" /dɪɡ/

## Verb

1. To remove earth, sand, rock, or similar material, especially downward with a tool, in order to make a hole.
   - Simple: To move dirt or rock out of the way, usually to make a hole.
   - _Workers dig trenches across the lot to lay the new water pipes._
   - _Rescue teams dug through the rubble for hours after the collapse._
2. To investigate or research something, searching out facts that are hidden or hard to reach.
   - Simple: To search carefully for facts or hidden information.
   - _Investigators dig into financial records to trace the missing funds._
   - _Journalists dug up the senator's carefully buried past._
3. To obtain something by digging; to take it from the ground, often with up.
   - Simple: To take something out of the ground by digging.
   - _Farmers dig carrots before the first hard frost arrives._
   - _Miners dug coal from these hills for generations._
4. To like or appreciate someone or something; an informal slang use. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To enjoy or like something a lot.
   - _She really digs jazz from the sixties._
   - _We dig the laid-back vibe of this little café._
6. To thrust or poke sharply, pressing into something.
   - Simple: To push or poke something sharply into another thing.
   - _He dug his heels into the dirt to stop himself sliding._
   - _She would dig her nails into her palm whenever she felt nervous._
10. In volleyball, to defend against an opponent's attack hit by successfully passing the ball.
   - Simple: In volleyball, to stop a hard attack by passing the ball back up.
   - _He dug the powerful spike and kept the rally going._
   - _Liberos train to dig balls traveling at high speed._

## Noun

5. An archaeological or paleontological investigation, or the site where such work is being carried out.
   - Simple: A project where people carefully dig to find old objects or bones, or the place where they do this.
   - _The dig revealed the foundations of a Roman villa._
   - _Volunteers spent the summer working at a fossil dig in Montana._
7. A cutting, sarcastic remark directed at someone.
   - Simple: A mean or sarcastic comment aimed at someone.
   - _That remark was a not-so-subtle dig at her rival._
   - _The columnist slipped a few digs at the mayor into her article._
8. In volleyball, a defensive pass of a ball that the opposing team has attacked hard.
   - Simple: In volleyball, a save that keeps a hard-hit ball off the floor.
   - _A diving dig sent the ball back up for the setter._
   - _The libero's clean dig set up the counterattack._
11. A sharp thrust or poke, usually delivered with the elbow or a pointed object.
   - Simple: A sharp push or poke, often with something pointed.
   - _She felt a sudden dig in her ribs from someone behind her._
   - _He answered the joke with a gentle dig of his elbow._
12. A player's or side's turn at batting in cricket; an innings.
   - Simple: A team's or player's turn at batting in cricket.
   - _She played a patient dig, blocking everything until lunch._
   - _Australia needed a big dig to avoid the follow-on._
13. A tool for digging, especially a mattock used for breaking up hard ground. *(dialectal, UK)*
   - Simple: A hand tool used for breaking up and turning over soil.

## Verb

9. To understand or grasp something: a dated, slangy use. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To understand what someone means.
   - _You dig the plan? Good, then let's go._
   - _"Stay cool and keep it quiet, you dig?" the old jazz drummer said with a grin._
15. To study or work in a slow, plodding, laborious manner, like a laborer digging. *(dated, US)*
   - Simple: To study or work very hard in a slow, steady, tiring way.

## Noun

14. A forceful punch, notably in boxing a straight left that slips beneath the other fighter's guard. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A hard punch, especially one landed under the other fighter's guard in boxing.
16. A student who works through their studies in a slow, plodding, laborious manner. *(dated, US)*
   - Simple: A student who studies very hard in a slow, heavy, plodding way.
17. A duck; the web-footed water bird, in the old dialects of Lancashire and Cheshire. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A duck (the web-footed water bird that swims on ponds) in old Lancashire speech.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A rare or interesting secondhand vinyl record, especially one found while crate-digging through used bins.
- (noun) The occupation or work of digging for gold.
- (noun) Digoxin, a drug used in the treatment of heart failure and irregular heart rhythms.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3, 5–8, 10–16** — Old English dīcian, "to mound up earth, dig a ditch," became Middle English dīken, and an altered form, diggen, appears in the 13th century. Further back lie a Proto-Germanic word for a pool, dyke, or ditch and perhaps a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to stab, dig." The g may reflect the influence of an Old French variant, though French forms with g show up roughly 200 years after the English ones.
**Meanings 4, 9** — From African American Vernacular English; because slave speech was rarely written down, the origin is hard to trace. It has been suggested to come from Wolof dëgg, dëgga ("to understand, to appreciate"), or from Irish dtuig, making it a doublet of twig; others simply treat it as a semantic shift of the existing English word.
**Meaning 17** — Origin unknown. A similar word, digge, meant "duck" in Middle English.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/dig (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).