26984 words

excavate

4 definitions • 4 examples
1
to remove earth that is covering very old objects buried in the ground in order to discover things about the past:

Examples:

Ice age bones are being excavated in the caves.
2
to dig a hole or channel in the ground, especially with a machine:

Examples:

In tin mining today, workers excavate tunnels horizontally from a vertical shaft.
3
to dig a hole or channel in the ground, or to make a hole or channel by removing earth:

Examples:

[ I ] We’ll be excavating here for the foundation of the building.
4
To excavate is also to remove earth from a place in order to find old objects buried there:

Examples:

[ T ] Archaeologists are excavating a site near the cathedral.

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