FluentPlex

dig

/dɪɡ/ verb B1
  1. To move hard-packed earth out of the way, especially downward to make a hole with a shovel. Or to drill, or the like, through rocks, roads, or the like. More generally, to make any similar hole by moving material out of the way. (intransitive, transitive) · They dug an eight-foot ditch along the side of the road.· In the wintertime, heavy truck tires dig into the road, forming potholes.
  2. To get by digging; to take from the ground; often with up. (transitive) · to dig potatoes· to dig up gold
  3. To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
  4. To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously. (US, dated, slang)
  5. To investigate, to research, often followed by out or up. (figuratively) · to dig up evidence· to dig out the facts
  6. To thrust; to poke. · He dug an elbow into my ribs and guffawed at his own joke.
  7. To defend against an attack hit by the opposing team by successfully passing the ball

He/she/it digs · Past dug · Past participle dug · -ing form digging

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Verb forms

Base form
dig
He/she/it
digs
Past
dug
Past participle
dug
-ing form
digging

An irregular verb: learn its past and past participle by heart.

From the library

“Tabaqui came to me not long ago with some rude talk that I was a naked man’s cub and not fit to dig pig-nuts.
The Jungle Book, p. 16 · B2
Though the Bull dug into the walls with his horns, he tired before he could rout out the Mouse, and crouching down, went to sleep outside the hole.
Three Hundred Aesop's Fables, p. 51 · B2
There was no garret at all, and no cellar—except a small hole dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, p. 1 · B2
The Wild Sow, whom you see daily digging up the earth, wishes to uproot the oak, so she may on its fall seize our families as food for her young.” Having thus frightened the Eagle out of her senses, she crept down to the cave of the Sow, and said, “Your children are in great danger; for as soon as you go out with your litter to find food, the Eagle is prepared to pounce upon one of your little pigs.” Having instilled these fears into the Sow, she went and pretended to hide herself in the hollow of the tree.
Three Hundred Aesop's Fables, p. 63 · B2

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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.