Word.ws English Dictionary

delves

/dɛlvz/

delves is the third-person singular simple present indicative of delve.

delves is the plural of delve.

delves is the plural of delf.

Meaning of delve

Verb

delve (third-person singular simple present delves, present participle delving, simple past delved or (archaic) dolve, past participle delved or (archaic) dolve or (archaic) dolven)

  1. (intransitive, literary) To dig into the ground, especially with a shovel.
    • Delve of convenient depth your thrashing floor.1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  2. (ambitransitive, literary) To dig; to excavate.
    • And then they made an oratory behind the altar, and would have dolven for to have laid the body in that oratory […][1483, Jacobus de Voragine, translated by William Caxton, The Golden Legend (in Middle English)
  3. (ambitransitive, figuratively, literary) To search thoroughly and carefully for information, research, dig into, penetrate, fathom, trace out
    • I cannot delve him to the root.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

See all 5 meanings of delve

Meaning of delf

Noun

delf (plural delfs or delves)

  1. (UK, archaic, dialectal) A mine, quarry, pit dug; ditch.
  2. A charge representing a square sod of turf, traditionally taking the form of a simple square (e.g. in the middle of an escutcheon), although modernly sometimes represented with the grass in profile.
    • two delves gules

See all 3 meanings of delf

Proper noun capitalized: Delves

Delves

  1. (plural) plural of Delve

Origin of delves

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Inherited from Middle English delves.

Words that rhyme with delves

Questions about delves

What is delves the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Delves is the third-person singular simple present indicative of delve.
What part of speech is delves?
Delves is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce delves?
Delves is pronounced /dɛlvz/.

Words near delves in the dictionary

  1. DelVecchio
  2. Delvecchios
  3. delved
  4. delver
  5. delvers
  6. delves
  7. delvest
  8. delveth
  9. Delvey
  10. Delvile
  11. delving

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: delves (page history and authors); Delves (page history and authors); delve (page history and authors); delf (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.

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