DIG UP • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Dig up

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/dɪg əp/ 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.

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Etymology of 'Dig up'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dig up" Quotes from Famous Books

... of the Mormon people ceased to give grounds for a complaint against them. The old harshnesses of the Federal government were canceled by the new generosity of a placated nation. And neither party to the present strife in Utah should go back, beyond the period of this composition, to dig up, from the ...

— Under the Prophet in Utah - The National Menace of a Political Priestcraft • Frank J. Cannon and Harvey J. O'Higgins

... expedition to dig up buried cities," interrupted Kinney, "or a pleasure trip? I don't want to see harpoons! I wouldn't know a harpoon if you stuck one into me. I prefer to ...

— Once Upon A Time • Richard Harding Davis

... than a quarter of an hour had passed when, looking up for the fiftieth time, he spied the corporal returning down the grassy slope, alone. By this time his job was nearly done; and after finishing it he had the presence of mind to dig up a quart or so of potatoes and spread them over the ...

— Nicky-Nan, Reservist • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)

... found, to his dismay, that he had involved himself in writing the History of Germany, and in a measure of Europe, during the eighteenth century, a period perhaps the most tangled and difficult to deal with of any in the world's annals. He was like a man who, with intent to dig up a pine, found himself tugging at the roots of an Igdrasil that twined themselves under a whole Hercynian forest. His constant cries of positive pain in the progress of the work are distressing, as his indomitable ...

— Thomas Carlyle - Biography • John Nichol

... sail into the Gulf; and, having arrived at the oyster banks, cast anchor and commence business. The divers are first called to duty. They plunge to the bottom in four or five fathom water, dig up with sharpened sticks as many oysters as they are able, rise to the surface, and deposit them in sacks hung to receive them at the vessel's side. And thus they continue to do till the sacks are filled, or the hours allotted to this part of ...

— Mexico and its Religion • Robert A. Wilson

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