Word.ws English Dictionary

cave

UK/keɪv/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/kæɪv/

cave noun: a large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.

cave: a large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside
Image: [Tycho], CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

cave (plural caves)

  1. A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
    • We found a cave on the mountainside where we could take shelter.
    • The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
  2. A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.
    • Every boy at one time or another has dug a cave; I suppose because ages and ages ago his ancestors had to live in caves, […]1918, Edward Alfred Steiner, Uncle Joe's Lincoln, page 52
  3. A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.
    • This wine has been aged in our cave for thirty years.
  4. A place of retreat, such as a man cave.
    • My room was a cozy cave where I could escape from my family.
  5. A naturally-occurring cavity in bedrock which is large enough to be entered by an adult.
    • It was not strictly a cave, but a narrow fissure in the rock.
  6. (nuclear physics) A shielded area where nuclear experiments can be carried out.
    • These potential radiation fields or radioactive material levels may be the result of normal operations (ie, radiation in a target cave) […]1986, National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, Radiation Alarms and Access Control Systems, →ISBN, page 45
  7. (uncountable, drilling) Debris, particularly broken rock, which falls into a drill hole and interferes with drilling.
    • […] the casing can then be placed in the hole without encountering any cave and core drilling in rock can begin.1951, James Deans Cumming, Diamond Drill Handbook, page 134
  8. A collapse or cave-in.
    • The "breasts" of marble which unite the opposite lateral walls have been left standing in order to prevent a possible cave of the wall on either side.1885, Angelo Heilprin, Town Geology: The Lesson of the Philadelphia Rocks, page 79
  9. (also, figuratively, slang) The vagina.
    • Then without a word she lay on her back in the bed, her dark blond pubic hair rising about her dark wet cave like dried brush about a hidden spring.1976, Chester Himes, My Life of Absurdity, page 59
  10. (slang, often "Cave") A group that breaks from a larger political party or faction on a particular issue.
    • Without joining the cave, Hyde had abstained both in December 1956 and May 1957.1964, Leon D. Epstein, British Politics in the Suez Crisis, page 125
  11. (obsolete) Any hollow place, or part; a cavity.
    • the cave of the ear1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
  12. A code cave.
    • Once a code cave is created, you can execute it using either thread injection or thread hijacking. […] Additionally, you'd need to make sure that the cave properly cleans the stack.2016, Nick Cano, Game Hacking: Developing Autonomous Bots for Online Games

Verb

cave (third-person singular simple present caves, present participle caving, simple past and past participle caved)

  1. (figuratively) To surrender.
    • He caved under pressure.
    • Eventually the NUR overplayed its hands with an all-out strike. And when Peter Parker, the then-chairman of BR, who was well regarded among his staff, called their bluff by threatening to close down the entire network, they caved in.2022 December 14, Christian Wolmar, “Productivity should play no part in pay negotiations”, in RAIL, number 972, page 46
  2. To collapse.
    • First the braces buckled, then the roof began to cave, then we ran.
  3. To hollow out or undermine.
    • The levee has been severely caved by the river current.
  4. To engage in the recreational exploration of caves.
    • Pam has been caving for 25 years. She and her husband Tim are among the top cavers in the country. They are passionate about the world hidden beneath our feet and they were to be my instructors and guides on my first ever foray below ground that didn't involve getting on the tube.2007 September 29, Kate Humble, “What lies beneath”, in The Guardian
    Synonyms:
    spelunk
  5. In room-and-pillar mining, to extract a deposit of rock by breaking down a pillar which had been holding it in place.
    • The deposit is caved by knocking out the posts.
  6. (obsolete) To work over tailings to dress small pieces of marketable ore.
    • As an indication of the miners' desperation in these years, the free miners of Wensley lowered themselves to caving for scraps of ore.1999, Andy Wood, The Politics of Social Conflict: The Peak Country, 1520-1770, →ISBN, page 319
  7. (obsolete) To dwell in a cave.
    • although perhaps / It may be heard at court that such as we / Cave here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time / May make some stronger heada. 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 4, scene 2

Interjection

IPA/ˈkeɪvi/

  1. (UK, school slang) look out!; beware!
    • Ssh! Cave! Mum's the word! Not 'arf, or what?1989, Ben Elton, Richard Curtis, Private Plane (Blackadder Goes Forth), season 4, episode 4, spoken by Lt. George (Hugh Laurie)

Proper noun capitalized: Cave

Cave

  1. The 18th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
  2. A surname.
  3. A town and comune in Lazio, Italy.
  4. A township in Franklin County, Illinois, United States.
  5. A village in Lincoln County, Missouri, United States.
  6. An unincorporated community in Pendleton County, West Virginia, United States.
  7. A settlement in Timaru district, Canterbury, New Zealand.

Noun (2) capitalized: CAVE

CAVE (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of citizens against virtually everything; people who oppose the construction of any type of structure.
    • The Glenbrook Community Center is in disrepair and has been closed for a number of years, which means it is the exact kind of dilapidated and blighted building CAVE People will do everything to protect.2022 October 7, Arthur Augustyn, “Opinion: Stamford is a cultural hellhole. What do the people want?”, in Stamford Advocate, archived from the original on 14 Apr 2024

cave meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

cave in Hindi

large, naturally occurring cavity formed underground
गुफा guphā, गुफ़ा gufā, खोह khoh, कंदरा kandrā
to collapse
ढहना ḍhahnā

cave in Tamil

large, naturally occurring cavity formed underground
குகை kukai, கெவி kevi, பாழி pāḻi

cave in Marathi

large, naturally occurring cavity formed underground
गुहा guhā

cave in Urdu

large, naturally occurring cavity formed underground
غار ġār, گُفا gufā
More languagesFewer languages
cave in Bengali
গুহা guha
cave in Telugu
గుహ guha
cave in Malayalam
ഗുഹ guha
cave in Kannada
ಗವಿ gavi
cave in Punjabi
ਗੁਫਾ guphā
cave in Gujarati
ગુફા guphā
cave in Odia
ଗୁମ୍ଫା gumphā
cave in Sanskrit
गुहा guhā
cave in Assamese
গুহা guha
cave in Pashto
غار ǧār, خوڅه xośa, سمڅ smǝś, مغاره maǧāra
cave in Tagalog
yungib, kuweba
cave in Arabic
كَهْف kahf, غَار ḡār, مَغَارَة maḡāra, كهف kahf
cave in Malay
gua, kahaf, ngalau
cave in Indonesian
gua
cave in Persian
غار ġâr, مُغارِه moġâre, اِشْکَفْت eškaft
cave in Thai
ถ้ำ tâm, คูหา kuu-hǎa
cave in Vietnamese
hang, động
cave in Myanmar
ဂူ gu, ဥမင် u.mang, လိုဏ် luin
Kashmiri
گۄپھ gọph

Examples of cave in a sentence

  • That rockslide trapped me in a cave, and I was trapped for three days, but I lived.
  • The floor of a cave served the refugees as a home.
  • The group of miners were stuck underground after a shaft caved in.

All 40 example sentences with cave

Synonyms of cave

All synonyms of cave

Forms of cave

Noun
pluralcaves
Verb
third-person singular presentcaves
present participlecaving
past participlecaved
pastcaved

Past tense of cave: caved

Plural of cave: caves

Origin of cave

From Middle English cave, borrowed from Old French cave, from Latin cava (“cavity”), from cavus (“hollow”). Cognate with Tocharian B kor (“throat”), Albanian cup (“odd, uneven”), Ancient Greek κύαρ (kúar, “eye of needle, earhole”), Old Armenian սոր (sor, “hole”), Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “empty, barren, zero”). Displaced native Old English sċræf. More at cavum, cavus and cage.

Learned borrowing from Latin cavē, second-person singular present active imperative of caveō (“to beware”). Used at Eton College, Berkshire.

Words formed from cave

Phrases with cave

25 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with cave

29 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cave

What does cave mean?
Cave means a large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
What is cave in Hindi?
Cave in Hindi is गुफा (guphā), गुफ़ा (gufā), खोह (khoh). See Cave meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is cave?
Cave can be a noun, a verb, an interjection or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cave?
Cave is pronounced /keɪv/ (UK).
What is the plural of cave?
The plural of cave is caves.

Words near cave in the dictionary

  1. cavaulting
  2. cavaults
  3. cavayard
  4. Cavazos
  5. Cavazoses
  6. cave
  7. cave art
  8. cave bat
  9. cave bear
  10. cave bears
  11. cave cricket

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cave (page history and authors); Cave (page history and authors); CAVE (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cave.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cave.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.