Hypertext Webster Gateway: "excavate"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Excavate \Ex"ca*vate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Excavated}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Excavating}.] [L. excavatus, p. p. of excavare to
excavate; ex out + cavare to make hollow, cavus hollow. See
{Cave}.]
1. 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.
2. To form by hollowing; to shape, as a cavity, or anything
that is hollow; as, to excavate a canoe, a cellar, a
channel.
3. (Engin.) To dig out and remove, as earth.
The material excavated was usually sand. --E. L.
Corthell.
{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. --Knight.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
excavate
v 1: lay bare through digging; "Schliemann excavated Troy" [syn:
{unearth}]
2: find by digging in the ground; "I dug up an old box in the
garden" [syn: {dig up}, {turn up}]
3: form by hollowing; "Carnegie had a lake excavated for
Princeton University's rowing team"; "excavate a cavity"
4: remove the inner part or the core of; "the mining company
wants to excavate the hillsite" [syn: {dig}, {hollow}]
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