cave

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A hollow or natural passage under or into the earth, especially one with an opening to the surface.
2. n. A storage cellar, especially for wine.
3. v. To dig or hollow out.
4. v. To cause to collapse or fall in. Often used with in: The impact caved in the roof of the car.
5. v. To fall in; collapse. Often used with in: The walls caved in during the earthquake.
6. v. To give up all opposition; yield. Often used with in: The school committee caved in to the demands of parents.
7. v. To explore caves.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A hollow place in the earth; especially, a natural cavity of considerable size, extending more or less horizontally into a hill or mountain; a cavern; a den. Caves are principally met with in limestone rocks, in gypsum, sometimes in sandstone, and in volcanic rocks. Some of them have a very grand and picturesque appearance, such as Fingal's Cave in Staffa, on the west coast of Scotland, the entrance to which is formed by columnar ranges of basalt supporting an arch 60 feet high and 33 feet wide. Some, as the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, which incloses an extent of about 40 miles of subterraneous windings, are celebrated for their great extent and subterranean waters, or for their gorgeous stalactites and stalagmites. Others are of interest to the geologist and archæologist from the occurrence in them of osseous remains of animals of the Pleistocene period, or for the evidence their clay floors and rudely sculptured walls, and the implements found in them, offer of the presence of prehistoric man.
2. n. A cellar; a subterranean chamber.
3. n. Any hollow place or part; a cavity.
4. n. The ash-pit of a glass-furnace.
5. n. [capitalized] A name given to a party in the British Parliament who seceded from the Liberals on the reform bill introduced by them in 1866. See Adullamite.
6. n. Any small faction of seceders or dissidents in Parliament.
7. To make hollow; hollow out.
8. To dwell in a cave.
9. To fall in and leave a hollow, as earth on the side of a well or pit: absolutely, or with in: as, the earth began to cave.
10. Figuratively, to break down; yield; give up; submit; knock under: absolutely, or with in: as, at this he caved.
11. To toss or pitch: as, to cave hay.
12. To toss in a threatening or haughty manner: as, to cave the horns (said of horned cattle); to cave the head.
13. To clean (threshed grain) by tossing or raking (it) on a barn-floor or a threshing-floor.
14. To move; rush.
15. To sink; be plunged or buried.
16. n. A toss, as of the head.
17. n. A cave-in.

Wiktionary

1. interj. UK, public school slang look out!; beware!
2. n. A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground, or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
3. n. A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.
4. n. A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.
5. n. A place of retreat, such as a man cave.
6. n. caving A naturally-occurring cavity in bedrock which is large enough to be entered by an adult.
7. n. nuclear physics A shielded area where nuclear experiments can be carried out.
8. n. drilling, uncountable Debris, particularly broken rock, which falls into a drill hole and interferes with drilling.
9. n. mining A collapse or cave-in.
10. n. figuratively The vagina.
11. n. slang, politics, often "Cave" A group that breaks from a larger political party or faction on a particular issue.
12. v. To surrender.
13. v. To collapse.
14. v. To hollow out or undermine.
15. v. To engage in the recreational exploration of caves; to spelunk.
16. v. mining In room-and-pillar mining, to extract a deposit of rock by breaking down a pillar which had been holding it in place.
17. v. mining, obsolete To work over tailings to dress small pieces of marketable ore.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A hollow place in the earth, either natural or artificial; a subterraneous cavity; a cavern; a den.
2. n. obsolete Any hollow place, or part; a cavity.
3. n. (Eng. Politics) A coalition or group of seceders from a political party, as from the Liberal party in England in 1866. See Adullam, Cave of, in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.
4. v. obsolete To make hollow; to scoop out.
5. v. obsolete To dwell in a cave.
6. v. To fall in or down. Hence (Slang), to retreat from a position; to give way; to yield in a disputed matter.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. hollow out as if making a cave or opening
2. v. explore natural caves
3. n. a geological formation consisting of an underground enclosure with access from the surface of the ground or from the sea