Word.ws English Dictionary

dug in

dug in is the simple past and past participle of dig in.

Meaning of dig in

Verb

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

  1. (colloquial) To begin eating.
    • I wanted to say grace before dinner, but the kids were already digging in.
  2. (colloquial) To engage in a burst of hard work.
    • I've got to dig in for a couple of weeks to secure my promotion.
    Synonyms:
    fall to, go for it
  3. (also, figuratively) To dig trenches to resist an enemy attack.
    • If Russia choses to dig in, then the military balance – which typically favours the defender on a 3-1 ratio – is reversed.2022 April 4, Dan Sabbagh, “Routing of Russian forces from Kyiv area will be hard to repeat in eastern Ukraine”, in The Guardian
  4. (idiomatic) To adopt a resolute state of mind.
    • to dig in one's feet, heels, etc.
  5. To cover over by digging.

Questions about dug in

What is dug in the simple past and past participle of?
Dug in is the simple past and past participle of dig in.

Words near dug in in the dictionary

  1. dufuses
  2. dug
  3. dug around
  4. dug deep
  5. dug for victory
  6. dug in
  7. dug in one's heels
  8. dug into
  9. dug on
  10. dug one's grave with a fork
  11. dug one's grave with a fork and spoon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dug in (page history and authors); dig in (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: “dug in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dug_in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.