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Digging   /dˈɪgɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Dig  v. t.  (past & past part. dug, digged is archaic; pres. part. digging)  
1.
To turn up, or delve in, (earth) with a spade or a hoe; to open, loosen, or break up (the soil) with a spade, or other sharp instrument; to pierce, open, or loosen, as if with a spade. "Be first to dig the ground."
2.
To get by digging; as, to dig potatoes, or gold.
3.
To hollow out, as a well; to form, as a ditch, by removing earth; to excavate; as, to dig a ditch or a well.
4.
To thrust; to poke. (Colloq.) "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."
5.
To like; enjoy; admire. "The whole class digs Pearl Jam." (Colloq.)
To dig down, to undermine and cause to fall by digging; as, to dig down a wall.
To dig from, To dig out of, To dig out, To dig up, to get out or obtain by digging; as, to dig coal from or out of a mine; to dig out fossils; to dig up a tree. The preposition is often omitted; as, the men are digging coal, digging iron ore, digging potatoes.
To dig in,
(a)
to cover by digging; as, to dig in manure.
(b)
To entrench oneself so as to give stronger resistance; used of warfare or negotiating situations.
to dig in one's heels To offer stubborn resistance.



dig  v. t.  (past & past part. dug, digged is archaic; pres. part. digging)  
1.
To understand; as, do you dig me?. (slang)
2.
To notice; to look at; as, dig that crazy hat!. (slang)
3.
To appreciate and enjoy; as, he digs classical music as well as rock. (slang)



Dig  v. i.  (past & past part. dug, digged is archaic; pres. part. digging)  
1.
To work with a spade or other like implement; to do servile work; to delve. "Dig for it more than for hid treasures." "I can not dig; to beg I am ashamed."
2.
(Mining) To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
3.
To work hard or drudge; specif. (U. S.): To study ploddingly and laboriously. (Colloq.) "Peter dug at his books all the harder."
4.
(Mach.) Of a tool: To cut deeply into the work because ill set, held at a wrong angle, or the like, as when a lathe tool is set too low and so sprung into the work.
To dig out, to depart; to leave, esp. hastily; decamp. (Slang, U. S.)



noun
Digging  n.  
1.
The act or the place of digging or excavating.
Synonyms: excavation, dig.
2.
pl. Places where ore is dug; especially, certain localities in California, Australia, and elsewhere, at which gold is obtained. (Recent)
3.
pl. Region; locality. (Low)
4.
A thorough search for something (often causing disorder or confusion).
Synonyms: ransacking, rummage.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Digging" Quotes from Famous Books



... Monday morning, and we fell to digging as before. The old priest came out to look, and asked if we couldn't fix a post for him on the road up to the church. He needed it badly, that post; it had stood there before, but had got blown down; he used it for nailing up notices ...
— Wanderers • Knut Hamsun

... beat her." Peletiah went over to his brother. "She beat Rachel." He kept repeating it, over and over; meanwhile Ezekiel moved about in confusion, digging the toes of his shoes into the gravel to ...
— Five Little Peppers and their Friends • Margaret Sidney

... thing, Aby? For what have I been labouring? Have not we both spent our lives in contriving? How many charming thoughts have we had! What pleasure have we taken in planting and pulling up, digging and scattering, watering and draining, turfing ...
— Anna St. Ives • Thomas Holcroft

... could not endure to be ordered about by any one settled his mind for him on that subject. He would have to get his adventures in other ways. He might emigrate to America. He had a cousin in New York and one in Chicago. He might go to Canada or Australia or South Africa ... digging for gold or diamonds! There was nothing in Ireland that attracted him ... all the desirable things were in distant places. Farming in Canada or Australia had a romantic attraction that was not to be found in farming in Ireland. ...
— The Foolish Lovers • St. John G. Ervine

... these met with the most favourable reception, because in the novelty of an art, men are never difficult to please, before their taste has been made fastidious by choice and abundance. Must not this situation have had its influence on him before he learned to make higher demands on himself, and by digging deeper in his own mind, discovered the rich veins of noble metal that ran there? It is even highly probable that he must have made several failures before he succeeded in getting into the right path. Genius is in a certain ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art - and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel trans John Black


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