Dig v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dug or Digged p. pr. & vb. n. Digging. -- Digged is archaic.]
1. To turn up, or delve in, (earth) with a spade or a hoe; to open, loosen, or break up (the soil) with a spade, or other sharp instrument; to pierce, open, or loosen, as if with a spade.
Be first to dig the ground. --Dryden.
2. To get by digging; as, to dig potatoes, or gold.
3. To hollow out, as a well; to form, as a ditch, by removing earth; to excavate; as, to dig a ditch or a well.
4. To thrust; to poke. [Colloq.]
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. --Robynson (More's Utopia).
To dig down, to undermine and cause to fall by digging; as, to dig down a wall.
To dig from, To dig out of, To dig out, To dig up, to get out or obtain by digging; as, to dig coal from or out of a mine; to dig out fossils; to dig up a tree. The preposition is often omitted; as, the men are digging coal, digging iron ore, digging potatoes.
To dig in, (a) to cover by digging; as, to dig in manure. (b) To entrench oneself so as to give stronger resistance; -- used of warfare or negotiating situations.
to dig in one's heels To offer stubborn resistance.
Dig, v. i.
1. To work with a spade or other like implement; to do servile work; to delve.
Dig for it more than for hid treasures. --Job iii. 21.
I can not dig; to beg I am ashamed. --Luke xvi. 3.
2. Mining To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
3. To work hard or drudge; specif. (U. S.): To study ploddingly and laboriously. [Colloq.]
Peter dug at his books all the harder. --Paul L. Ford.
4. Mach. Of a tool: To cut deeply into the work because ill set, held at a wrong angle, or the like, as when a lathe tool is set too low and so sprung into the work.
To dig out, to depart; to leave, esp. hastily; decamp. [Slang, U. S.]