mined

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of mine.

   Prospectors mined the valley for tin until the seams ran dry.

   The region has been mined for copper since Roman times.

   Note

   The object decides which mine is meant. Rock, ore or a valley that was mined was dug for its metal. An area that was mined was sown with explosives, and a ship or vehicle that was mined was damaged by one. A wall or foundation that was mined was dug away beneath, the sense that survives in undermined. Without an object, it simply means tunneled or burrowed.

2. 2
   adjective

   Extracted from the earth through mining, or having had explosive mines laid in or across it.

   The mined ore was transported to the smelter for processing.

   Crossing the mined approaches required a careful sweep by combat engineers.

   Oppositeunmined

   Note

   Two very different pictures share this adjective: ground dug for what lies in it, and ground sown with explosives. Only the explosive meaning grades naturally, so a country can be heavily mined, or among the most mined in the world. The digging meaning now often works by contrast, as in mined diamonds against lab-grown ones, and it stretches to a mined block on the bitcoin network. Its plain opposite is unmined.

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