dive
/daɪv/
dive verb: to swim under water. Also the plural of diva.
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Verb
dive (third-person singular simple present dives, present participle diving, simple past dived or (chiefly US and Canada) dove, past participle dived or (chiefly US and Canada) dove or (rare, nonstandard) doven or (rare, nonstandard) diven)
- To swim under water.
- He dove in the water to save her.
- To jump into water head-first.
- It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men have dived for them.1826, Richard Whately, Elements of Logic
- To jump headfirst toward the ground or into another substance.
- to dive into home plate
- To descend sharply or steeply.
- [the Hammersmith & City at Paddington]: There it dived underground, eventually enabling its train services to run over, and be entangled with, the easterly extensions of the Metropolitan and the District.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 49
- To lose altitude quickly by pointing downwards, as with a bird or aircraft.
- To undertake with enthusiasm.
- She dove right in and started making improvements.
- To deliberately fall down after a challenge, imitating being fouled, in the hope of getting one's opponent penalised.
- To leap while fielding to take a brilliant catch which usually results in a wicket and appreciation.
- To cause to descend, dunk; to plunge something into water.
- To dive an infant either thrice or but once in Baptism[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
- To explore by diving; to plunge into.
- The Curtii bravely dived the gulf of flame.1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning
- The green lane is the school-boy's friend, / Low leaves his quarrel apprehend, / […] / The brimming brook invites a leap, / He dives the hollow, climbs the steep.1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “May-Day”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 20
- To plunge or to go deeply into any subject, question, business, etc.; to penetrate; to explore.
- dive into the Concerns of all about them1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
- Google says this lets AI Mode recommend more diverse sources, produce deeper answers to more complex queries, dives deeper – and you have the ability to ask follow-up questions.2025 June 13, Thomas Germain, “Is Google about to destroy the web?”, in BBC
Noun
dive (plural dives)
- A jump or plunge into water.
- the dive of a hawk after prey
- A headfirst jump toward the ground or into another substance.
- The 24-year-old Brazilian hurdler Joao Vitor de Oliveira progressed to the Rio competition’s semi-finals by executing a Superman-style dive headfirst over the finishing line – beating South Africa’s Antonio Alkana by one hundredth of a second.2016 August 16, Kate Samuelson, “Here Are Other Athletes Who Famously Won with a Dive”, in Time
- A downward swooping motion.
- A swim under water.
- A decline.
- A seedy bar, nightclub, etc.
- Aerial descent with the nose pointed down.
- A deliberate fall after a challenge.
Also used as
dive is also the plural of diva.
dive is also the obsolete form of daeva.
dive meaning in Hindi, Kannada, Odia and Assamese
dive in Hindi
- to swim under water
- डुबकी ḍubkī
- to jump into water head-first
- डुबकी ḍubkī
dive in Kannada
- ಧುಮುಕುವುದು, ಡೈವ್
dive in Odia
- ଡାଇଭ୍
dive in Assamese
- to swim under water
- ডুব মাৰা dubo mara, ডুব মৰা dubo mora
- to jump into water head-first
- ডুব দে dubo de
More languagesFewer languages
- dive in Nepali
- डाइभ
- dive in Arabic
- غَاصَ ḡāṣa, غَطْسَ ḡaṭsa, يقفز الى الماء
- dive in Indonesian
- menyelam, loncat indah, meloncat ke dalam air
- dive in Thai
- ดำ dam, การพุ่งล้ม
- dive in Vietnamese
- lặn
Examples of dive in a sentence
- He ran to the edge of the swimming pool and dived in.
- It was one of those small-town dive bars you often read about.
- After braving tricks on the high-dive, he braved a jump off the first diving platform.
Forms of dive
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | dives |
| present participle | diving |
| past | dived |
| past Canada US | dove |
| past participle | dived |
| past participle Canada US | dove |
| past participle Canada US | doven |
| past participle (nonstandard, rare) | doven |
| past participle (nonstandard, rare) | diven |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | divest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | divedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | diveth |
| Noun | |
| plural | dives |
Origin of dive
From Middle English diven, duven, from the merger of Old English dȳfan (“to dip, immerse”, transitive weak verb) (from Proto-Germanic *dūbijaną) and dūfan (“to duck, dive, sink, penetrate”, intransitive strong verb) (past participle ġedofen). Cognate with Icelandic dýfa (“to dip, dive”), Low German bedaven (“covered, covered with water”). See also deep, dip.
From Italian dive; see diva.
Words formed from dive
- back dive
- backward dive
- bedoven
- crash-dive
- crash dive
- deep dive
- deep-dive
- divable
- diveable
- dive bar
- dive boat
- divebomb
- dive-bomb
- dive bomber
- dive brick
- dive computer
- dive in
- divekeeper
- dive knife
- divemaster
- diver
- dive support vessel
- dive-under
- divewear
- divey
- dolphin dive
- duck and dive
- duck dive
- dumpster dive
- fish dive
- forward dive
- full dive
- Klinsmann dive
- nose-dive
- nosedive
- postdive
- power dive
- predive
- sailor dive
- saturation dive
- scuba diving
- skin-dive
- skydive
- skydiving
- stagedive
- stage dive
- stage-dive
- Stengel dive
- swallow dive
- swandive
- swan-dive
- swan dive
- take a dive
- undived
- updive
Phrases with dive
- cage dive
- dive bars
- dive bomb
- free dive
- nose dive
- dive boats
- dive bombs
- dive bombed
- dive bricks
- dive knives
- took a dive
- dive bombers
6 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with dive
34 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about dive
- What does dive mean?
- Dive means to swim under water.
- What is dive in Hindi?
- Dive in Hindi is डुबकी (ḍubkī). See Dive meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is dive?
- Dive can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce dive?
- Dive is pronounced /daɪv/.
- What is the past tense of dive?
- The past tense of dive is dived.
Words near dive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dive (page history and authors); dive (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dive (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dive (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-dive.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dive.wav.
Cite this entry: “dive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.