EXCAVATE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Excavate

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/ˈɛkskəvˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Excavate v. t. (past & past part. excavated; pres. part. excavating)

To hollow out; to form cavity or hole in; to make hollow by cutting, scooping, or digging; as, to excavate a ball; to excavate the earth.

To form by hollowing; to shape, as a cavity, or anything that is hollow; as, to excavate a canoe, a cellar, a channel.

(Engin.) To dig out and remove, as earth. "The material excavated was usually sand."

Excavating pump, a kind of dredging apparatus for excavating under water, in which silt and loose material mixed with water are drawn up by a pump.

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Etymology of 'Excavate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Excavate" Quotes from Famous Books

... a strawberry. Its cool and shining sides seemed very attractive to a thirsty Soul. A red man, dressed strangely in the feathers of a raven, stood hard by, and loudly invited all passers-by to partake of this refreshment. I was about to excavate a portion of the monstrous strawberry (being partial to that fruit), when my guide held my hand and whispered in a low voice that they who accepted the invitation of the man that guarded the strawberry were lost. He added that, into whatever paradise I might ...

— In the Wrong Paradise • Andrew Lang

... caisson to sink and the earth to rise within it. But it is more usual to employ what is called the plenum process, in which air under high pressure is pumped into the caisson and expels the water, as in a diving bell. Workmen then descend, entering through an air lock, and excavate the ground at the bottom of the caisson, which sinks gradually as the excavation continues. Under this system a length of some two miles of quay wall is being constructed at Antwerp, far out in the channel of the river Scheldt. Here the caissons are laid ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 417 • Various

... banks of sandy clay in the country round about Carpentras are the favourite haunts of a host of Bees and Wasps, those lovers of a thoroughly sunny aspect and of soils that are easy to excavate. Here, in the month of May, two Anthophorae[1] are especially abundant, gatherers of honey and, both of them, makers of subterranean cells. One, A. parietina, builds at the entrance of her dwelling an advanced fortification, an earthy cylinder, wrought in open work, like that ...

— The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles • Jean Henri Fabre

... waiting for the moon to sink We saw a wild hyena slink About a new-made grave, and then Begin to excavate its brink! ...

— The Devil's Dictionary • Ambrose Bierce

... error: M. Botta made the first attempt to excavate the Ninevite remains at Khorsabad. Mr. Layard had, moreover, commenced his excavations before he received the countenance of the British Museum authorities. See "Nineveh—the Buried City of the East," one of the volumes of the "National ...

— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer

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