excavate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb recover through digging
    unearth.
    • Schliemann excavated Troy
    • excavate gold
  2. verb find by digging in the ground
    turn up; dig up.
    • I dug up an old box in the garden
  3. verb form by hollowing
    • Carnegie had a lake excavated for Princeton University's rowing team
    • excavate a cavity
  4. verb remove the inner part or the core of
    dig; hollow.
    • the mining company wants to excavate the hillside

WordNet

Ex"ca*vate transitive verb
Etymology
L. excavatus, p. p. of excavare to excavate; ex out + cavare to make hollow, cavus hollow. See Cave.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Excavated; present participle & verbal noun Excavating
Definitions
  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.
    Knight.

Webster 1913