excavation

Noun

excavation (countable and uncountable, plural excavations)

1. (uncountable) The act of excavating, or of making hollow, by cutting, scooping, or digging out a part of a solid mass.
   • Near-synonyms: hollowing out, hollowing

   Synonyms:

   hollowing out, hollowing

   1. Especially, the trade of digging engineered holes for building foundations, roadbed preparations, and similar purposes.
2. (countable) A cavity formed by cutting, digging, or scooping.
   • Prof. Dainelli made a personal study of the lakes of the Upper Indus lying between its confluence with the Gilgit on the west and the plains of Kashmir on the east. From this district he cites fifty lakes and groups of lakes. Many of these are moraine-dammed, but some of the larger ones, as the...1924 March, E. J. Garwood, “Himalayan Glaciation”, in The Geographical Journal, volume LXIII, number 3, London: Royal Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 244
3. (countable) An uncovered cutting in the earth, in distinction from a covered cutting or tunnel.
4. (countable) The material dug out in making a channel or cavity.
   • […] to cart away the excavations from the work, and to recart the same back again so far as required to fill the trench over the sewer […]1878, N.Y. Supreme Court (page 4)
5. (uncountable) Archaeological research that unearths buildings, tombs and objects of historical value.
6. (countable) A site where an archaeological exploration is being carried out.
   • Gregory led the excavations alongside marine archaeologist Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch, who is also a curator at the National Museum.
     “It’s been a long process and I’ve come close to giving up along the way, but this is undoubtedly the craziest archaeological excavation I’ve yet been part of,” Bloch...2025 May 2, Amarachi Orie, “Archaeologists discover true identity of Costa Rica shipwrecks long thought to be pirate ships”, in CNN, archived from the original on 02 Aug 2025
7. (countable) Something uncovered by archaeological excavation.
   • To date, [Taco's 1982 cover of Irving Berlin's 1935] "Cheek To Cheek" and similar auditory excavations have fared poorly.1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 392
8. (figuratively) The act of discovering and exposing or developing (a quality).
   • Chua looks at the landscape of childhood rather like a mining engineer looks at a pristine landscape—ripe for the excavation of talent.2015, Anne Manne, The Life of I : The New Culture of Narcissism
   • This Andrade, a lawyer, seemed to enjoy bureucratic process as much as Mário de Andrade valorized the enthnographic excavation of creativity.2015, John F. Collins, Revolt of the Saints