dig

Verb (1)

dig (third-person singular simple present digs, present participle digging, simple past and past participle dug or (archaic) digged)

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.
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.1894, Paul Leicester Ford, The Honorable Peter Stirling
5. (figuratively) To investigate, to research, often followed by out or up.
   • to dig up evidence
   • to dig out the facts
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.1551, Thomas More, “(please specify the Internet Archive page)”, in Raphe Robynson [i.e., Ralph Robinson], transl., A Fruteful, and Pleasaunt Worke of the Best State of a Publyque Weale, and of the...
7. To defend against an attack hit by the opposing team by successfully passing the ball

Noun (1)

dig (plural digs)

1. An archeological or paleontological investigation, or the site where such an investigation is taking place.

   Synonyms:

   excavation

2. Any act of digging to find or retrieve something.
   • Iron Springs offers a guided clam dig for first timers or those who are rusty at spotting the clam's show at low tide. It includes a license and all the equipment you'll need to catch your limit on Copalis Beach […]2014, Karen Gaudette Brewer, Seafood Lover's Pacific Northwest, page 128
3. A thrust; a poke.
   • He guffawed and gave me a dig in the ribs after telling his latest joke.

   Synonyms:

   jab

4. (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.1836, The Court Magazine and Belle Assemblée, volume 7, page 167
5. A defensive pass of the ball that has been attacked by the opposing team.
6. An innings.
7. A cutting, sarcastic remark.
   • Buckram ! that's a dig at my trade.1838, John Baldwin Buckstone, The Irish Lion. A Farce, in One Act, page 15
   • 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...1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways: Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 593

   Synonyms:

   jibe

8. 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.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 207
9. (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...1892, Occident - Volume 22, page 36
10. (UK, dated, dialectal) A tool for digging.
11. (slang) A rare or interesting vinyl record bought second-hand.
    • a £1 charity shop dig

Verb (2)

dig (third-person singular simple present digs, present participle digging, simple past and past participle dug)

1. (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 mean1974, “H2Ogate Blues”, in Winter in America, performed by Gil Scott-Heron
2. (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!»1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 6, in On the Road, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, part 2

Noun (2)

IPA/dɪd͡ʒ/

dig (uncountable)

1. (colloquial) Digoxin.
   • dig toxicity

Noun (3)

dig (plural digs)

1. (obsolete, Lancashire) 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]10 March, 1616, excerpt from "A true and perfect Inventory of all the Goods &c. which late were of Philippe Oldfeid," reprinted in 1890, J.P. Earwaker (ed., compiler), "Badwall Township: Berington of...
   • dig, or digg, s.—A duck. A gentleman introduced a man to an old lady in America as an inhaitant of Cheshire, her old county. "I'll soon see," said she, "if he is reet Cheshire born. Tell me," said she to the man, "what a dig, a snig, a grig, a peckled poot, and a peannot are?" B. Kennett in his...1877, Lieut.-Col. Egerton Leigh, M.P., A Glossary of Words Used in The Dialect of Cheshire., London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., pages 61–62

Noun (4) capitalized: DIG

DIG (plural DIGs)

1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of dwarf irregular galaxy.

   Synonyms:

   dI

Noun (5) capitalized: dIG

dIG (plural dIGs)

1. dwarf irregular galaxy

   Synonyms:

   dI