digs

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of dig.

   The crew digs a new trench along the road each morning.

   He always digs through the old files before deciding anything.

   Note

   The present-tense form that keeps the verb's particles close: she digs up the bulbs, he digs out the old records. Only the -s marks it. In speech it sounds exactly like the plural noun, so the subject decides which you have: a crew digs, but the crew's digs uncovered pottery.

   She digs up the old bulbs every autumn.

   He digs out every record before he signs.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of dig.

   Several digs across the valley uncovered pottery from the same period.

   Her sharp digs during the debate left her opponent flustered.

   Note

   An ordinary count plural, so each dig can be numbered: several digs across one valley, three sharp digs in a single debate. That sets it apart from the word for lodgings, which is plural in form only, since one person's digs are a single place. If a number or "several" fits naturally in front, you have this plural.

3. 3
   nouncolloquialplural

   Rented rooms or lodgings where someone lives.

   He moved into student digs close to campus before term started.

   The actor complained about the cramped digs during the long tour.

   Similarlodgings, rooms, quarters, accommodation, pad

   Note

   A clipped form of diggings, which is why it never loses its -s. There is no single dig to live in, and it takes a plural verb: our new digs are. It stretches from a rented room, as when Joyce's Ulysses (1922) has Stephen fired out of his digs, to a whole office in Feminist Bookstore News (1993). It belongs to casual talk, not formal writing.

4. 4
   nouncolloquialplural

   Clothes; an outfit or set of garments someone is wearing.

   Everyone admired his sharp digs at the awards ceremony.

   She splurged on some flashy new digs before her vacation.

   Similarthreads, clothes, duds, togs, gear

   Note

   The same clipped word as the lodgings sense, and the same rule holds: always plural, so you say new digs, never a dig. It names clothes by their look and fashion. R. Patrick Solomon's Black Resistance in High School (1992) writes of "army digs" being in. It suits casual speech, but plain clothes is the word for formal writing.

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