Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To search deeply and laboriously: delved into the court records.
- v. To dig the ground, as with a spade.
- v. Archaic To dig (ground) with a spade.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To dig; turn up or excavate with a spade or some other tool.
- To bury.
- To practise digging; labor with the spade.
- Figuratively, to carry on laborious or continued research or investigation, as one digging for hidden treasure.
- n. A place dug or hollowed out; a pitfall; a ditch; a den; a cave.
- n. That which is dug out: as, a delve of coals (a certain quantity of coal dug from a mine).
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive To dig the ground, especially with a shovel.
- v. transitive, intransitive To search thoroughly and carefully for information, research, dig into, penetrate, fathom, trace out
- v. transitive, intransitive To dig, to excavate.
- n. A pit or den.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To dig; to open (the ground) as with a spade.
- v. To dig into; to penetrate; to trace out; to fathom.
- v. To dig or labor with a spade, or as with a spade; to labor as a drudge.
- n. A place dug; a pit; a ditch; a den; a cave.
WordNet 3.0
- v. turn up, loosen, or remove earth
Etymologies
- From Middle English delven, delfan ("to dig, examine, bury, imbed, implant"), from Old English delfan ("to dig, dig out, burrow, bury"), from Proto-Germanic *delbanan, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰelbʰ- (“to dig”). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English delven, to dig, from Old English delfan. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I didn't mean for this post to once again delve into my mind, but it's a journal, so who cares?”
“He and Michelle can go back to their hateful church and once again delve into their bitter circle of friends that hate America.”
“Fan fiction has become so popular that itÂ’s only a matter of a quick search before you can once again delve into the lives of the fictional characters youÂ’ve grown to love.”
“CS5 Essential Training titles delve deeper into these features using example projects to demonstrate techniques, improve workflow, and much more.”
“The Beatles" version exclusively explores the Fab Four's extensive archive, while the other two titles delve into the vast genre of rock 'n' roll.”
“Newspaper reporters don't "delve" anymore . . . the age of Woodward and Bernstein is long dead.”
The real reason why Team Newsom unleashed the Clinton so early in it's campaign.
“BRODY: They had to deal with that, and so they're reticent to a certain degree to kind of delve into some of the faith issues as it relates to the political environment, if you will, because they know that he can get a lot of backlash.”
“I mean, one of the reasons I took it is because I wanted to kind of delve into something a little bit more serious, a little bit more dramatic than I had been doing.”
“Q Mike, just getting back to tomorrow, could you kind of delve into what's so important about the climate change --”
“As I started to kind of delve into the question rather more, it dawned on me that this period that I had arrived at the end of -- the period from 1945 to the early 1970s -- was not normal, was not the way America usually was, but was, on the contrary, a huge aberration, a massive stroke of luck.”
The Day Before Yesterday: Reconsidering America's Past, Rediscovering the Present
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘delve’.
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 315 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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minneapolitan's Words
hissyfit, fussbudget, aghast, lament, trichinellosis, tranche, decadent, aspersion, pejorative, aniline, galoshes, accede and 200 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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theastic's Words
cellar, stalemate, wrought, opal, tyrant, squelch, squab, linen, tartan, paisley, scope, siren and 395 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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mango22's Words
avalanche, apple, arrividerci, awry, adamant, asunder, barter, beloved, calm, cataclysmic, catastrophe, coat and 143 more...
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artoparts's Words
illation, finite, edify, abide, abrade, vouch, amiss, vociferate, perusing, techantiquery, rigamarole, holon and 615 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, D
dodecahedron, din, diglyceride, dysphotopsia, decoction, deboss, diatonic, dithyramb, divagate, discalced, dishdasha, daft and 281 more...
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My List
A list of words that I have generated over time.
cairn, cacodaemoniacal, abash, abject, abjure, abstemious, abhor, abnegate, abnegation, abscond, abstruse, acclivity and 702 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for delve.
milosrdenstvi I absolutely abominate this word when used in the sense of "inquire into or learn about". Such a pretentious metaphor! Nov 1, 2010