dig

verb

1. (intransitive, transitive)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.”

   “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. To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
4. (US, dated, slang)To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously.

   “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”

   “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.

   “He dug an elbow into my ribs and guffawed at his own joke.”

   “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. To defend against an attack hit by the opposing team by successfully passing the ball
8. (dated, slang)To understand.

   “You dig?”

   “McCord has blown. Mitchell has blown. No tap on my telephone / Halderman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, and Dean / It follows a pattern if you dig what I mean”

   “Osiris: Pimpin' has been around since the world started turnin' and it's gonna keep right on turnin' right along with it. Until this little planet rotates off its axis as a result of its core overheating and explodes into cosmic dust! Can you dig it? Chocolate Giddy-Up: It's dug, brotha.”

9. (dated, slang, transitive)To appreciate, or like.

   “Baby, I dig you.”

   “«And dig her!» yelled Dean, pointing at another woman. «Oh, I love, love, love women! I think women are wonderful! I love women!»”

   “Oh, but California / California, I'm coming home / I'm going to see the folks I dig”

   “Louie said, "I dig this Theo. I'm gonna learn Swahili and rap with him."”

noun

1. An archeological or paleontological investigation, or the site where such an investigation is taking place.
2. A thrust; a poke.

   “He guffawed and gave me a dig in the ribs after telling his latest joke.”

3. (archaic, slang)A hard blow, especially (boxing) a straight left-hander delivered under the opponent's guard.

   “[…] 'let him go, I tell you, or I'll be after breaking your ugly mug,' and with that I gave him a dig that knocked him into smithereens.”

4. A defensive pass of the ball that has been attacked by the opposing team.
5. An innings.
6. A cutting, sarcastic remark.

   “Buckram ! that's a dig at my trade.”

   “Why this already very fast train should be speeded up still further, when none of the other more easily timed S.R. West of England trains has a single minute pared from its schedule, is unexplained - unless this is a playful dig at the Western Region, most of whose expresses, by reason of additional stops, will be decelerated from the same date.”

   “Entitled 'On Several Mistakes of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia', this document is broader, more theoretical and more rambling than the Polish equivalent, identifying deep problems in many spheres. But it does get in a few digs at Slánský, accusing him of having made mistakes in recruitment to the communist party.”

   “Unfortunately, the man was too busy, although he said hello to the Young Man politely enough and found the time to make a few digs about the postponement of the elections.”

   “In 'Sorted for E's and Whizz', Pulp's Jarvis Cocker wrote about losing an important part of his brain somewhere in a field in Hampshire, and took a dig at the rave scene for being hypocritical – idealistic and friendly when everyone was coming up on their pills, less so when everyone's coming down and you're trying to get a lift home – and essentially meaningless.”

7. The occupation of digging for gold.

   “Don Quixote told us that Western Australia was the same to him as any other country, except that it possessed the charm of novelty, and he assured us that as soon as he was well enough he would be off on the "dig" once more.”

8. (US, colloquial, dated)A plodding and laborious student.

   “Between the two extremes of college men the unsocial dig and the flunking swell, lies the majority, who, acknowledging the duty and merit of hard work, see the value in social and recreative line, but are at somewhat of a loss, seemingly, how to proportionize the time given to the different sides of college life, or how far to allow themselves to go on the more attractive side.”

9. (UK, dated, dialectal)A tool for digging.
10. (slang)A rare or interesting vinyl record bought second-hand.

    “a £1 charity shop dig”

11. (colloquial, uncountable)Digoxin.

    “dig toxicity”

12. (obsolete)A duck.

    “Powltrey, &c, &c. Item ten turkeys … Item three Digs [an old Cheshire word for duck] and a Drake … Item ffower Capons … [The word's gloss has been inserted by Earwaker]”

    “Smith's farm was near to Parrs; new buildings had been built in the Hemp Croft. He carried coals in his cart by an inside chest, and had three hives of bees and several spinning wheels; his poultry comprised four hens, two diggs or ducks, and one drake. His total estate was £66. 10s.”

13. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of dwarf irregular galaxy.
14. dwarf irregular galaxy