delving
/ˈdɛlvɪŋ/
delving is the present participle and gerund of delve.
delving is the alternative form of dilving.
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)
- 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
- 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)
- 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...
- Synonyms:
- investigate, research
Meaning of dilving
Noun
dilving (uncountable)
- The shaking of tin ore in a sieve held underwater so that the waste flows out, leaving the tin behind.
Noun
delving (countable and uncountable, plural delvings)
- The act of one who delves.
- The purpose of my visit, and the frightful abnormalities it postulated struck at me all at once with a chill sensation that nearly over-balanced my ardour for strange delvings.1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 6, in The Whisperer in Darkness
- Doubtless, as has happened to others, her motives were sometimes misunderstood by those who may have looked with suspicion upon these delvings into pagan practice and belief, but they have been fully justified.1968, E. Dora Earthy, Valenge Women
Forms of delving
| plural | delvings |
|---|
Questions about delving
- What does delving mean?
- Delving means the act of one who delves.
- What is delving the present participle and gerund of?
- Delving is the present participle and gerund of delve.
- What part of speech is delving?
- Delving is a noun.
- How do you pronounce delving?
- Delving is pronounced /ˈdɛlvɪŋ/.
- What is the plural of delving?
- The plural of delving is delvings.
Words near delving in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: delving (page history and authors); delve (page history and authors); dilving (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: “delving.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/delving. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.