From Middle English diggen, alteration of Old English dīcian (compare Old English dīcere) from dīc, dīċ from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz, *dīkiją ("pool, puddle"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ-.

• IPA: /dɪɡ/

dig (digs, present participle digging; simple past and past participle dug)

1. (transitive, intransitive) 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.

   They dug an eight-foot ditch along the side of the road.

   In the wintertime, heavy truck tires dig into the road, forming potholes.

   If the plane can't pull out of the dive it is in, it'll dig a hole in the ground.

   My seven-year-old son always digs a hole in the middle of his mashed potatoes and fills it with gravy before he starts to eat them.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     Miss Thorn began digging up the turf with her lofter: it was a painful moment for me. ¶ “You might at least have tried me, Mrs. Cooke,” I said.

2. (transitive) To get by digging; to take from the ground; often with up.

   to dig potatoes

   to dig up gold

3. (mining) To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
4. (US, slang, dated) To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously.
   • 1894, Paul Leicester Ford, The Honorable Peter Stirling:

     Peter dug at his books all the harder.

5. (figurative) To investigate, to research, often followed by out or up.

   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.

   • 1551, Thomas More, “(please specify the Internet Archive page)”, in Raphe Robynson [i.e., Ralph Robinson], transl., A Fruteful, and Pleasaunt Worke of the Best State of a Publyque Weale, and of the Newe Yle Called Utopia: […], London: […] [Steven Mierdman for] Abraham Vele, […], →OCLC ↗:

     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.

7. (volleyball) To defend against an attack hit by the opposing team by successfully passing the ball

• French: creuser
• German: graben
• Italian: scavare
• Portuguese: cavar, escavar
• Russian: копа́ть
• Spanish: excavar, ahondar, cavar

• French: excaver
• Portuguese: cavar, escavar

dig (plural digs)

1. An archeological or paleontological investigation, or the site where such an investigation is taking place.

   Synonyms: excavation

2. A thrust; a poke.

   Synonyms: jab

   He guffawed and gave me a dig in the ribs after telling his latest joke.

3. (volleyball) A defensive pass of the ball that has been attacked by the opposing team.
4. (cricket) An innings.
5. A cutting, sarcastic remark.

   Synonyms: jibe

6. The occupation of digging for gold.
7. (US, colloquial, dated) A plodding and laborious student.
8. (UK, dialect, dated) A tool for digging.
9. (music, slang) A rare or interesting vinyl record bought second-hand.

   a £1 charity shop dig

• French: fouille
• German: Grabung, Ausgrabung
• Italian: scavi
• Portuguese: escavação
• Russian: раско́пки
• Spanish: excavación

From African American Vernacular English; due to lack of writing of slave speech, etymology is difficult to trace, but it has been suggested that it is from Wolof dëgg, dëgga ("to understand, to appreciate").

• IPA: /dɪɡ/

dig (digs, present participle digging; simple past and past participle dug)

1. (dated slang) To understand.

   You dig?

2. (dated slang, transitive) To appreciate, or like.

   Baby, I dig you.

   • 1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 6, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC ↗, part 2:

     «And dig her!» yelled Dean, pointing at another woman. «Oh, I love, love, love women! I think women are wonderful! I love women!»

   • 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 432 ↗:

     Louie said, "I dig this Theo. I'm gonna learn Swahili and rap with him."

• Spanish: picar el interés, llamar la atención

• French: kiffer
• Portuguese: curtir, gostar
• Spanish: caer bien, simpatizar

Shortening.

• IPA: /dɪd͡ʒ/

dig (uncountable)

1. (medicine, colloquial) Digoxin.

   dig toxicity

Unknown.

dig (plural digs)

1. (Lancashire, obsolete) A duck.
   • 10 March, 1616, excerpt from "A true and perfect Inventory of all the Goods &c. which late were of Philippe Oldfeid," reprinted in 1890, J.P. Earwaker (ed., compiler), "Badwall Township: Berington of Moorsbarrow and Bradwall, Pedigree" in The History of the Ancient Parish of Sandbach, Co. Chester. [… ↗ ]

     Powltrey, &c, &c.
     Item ten turkeys [...]
     Item three Digs [an old Cheshire word for duck] and a Drake [...]
     Item ffower Capons [...]

     [The word's gloss has been inserted by Earwaker]

dig (plural digs)

1. (galaxy) Initialism of dwarf irregular galaxy

• dI

• dE, DEG
• dSph

dig (plural digs)

1. (galaxy) dwarf irregular galaxy

• dI

• dEG, dE
• dSph