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excavate

ex·ca·vate

UK/ˈɛk.skə.veɪt/ US/ˈɛkskʌˌveɪt/ uncommon obsolete rare

verb

1.

lay bare through digging

  • “Schliemann excavated Troy”
Synonyms
2.

find by digging in the ground

  • “I dug up an old box in the garden”
Synonyms
3.

form by hollowing

  • “Carnegie had a lake excavated for Princeton University”
  • “;”
4.

remove the inner part or the core of

  • “the mining company wants to excavate the hillsite”
Synonyms

Origin

First attested in 1599, from Latin excavātus (“hollowed out”), perfect passive participle of excavō (“to hollow out”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ex (“out”) + cavō (“to hollow out, pierce”), from cavus (“cave, hole”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.