English Explanatory Dictionary

cave

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
  2. A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.
  3. A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.
  4. A place of retreat, such as a man cave.
  5. A naturally-occurring cavity in bedrock which is large enough to be entered by an adult.
  6. A shielded area where nuclear experiments can be carried out.
  7. Debris, particularly broken rock, which falls into a drill hole and interferes with drilling.
  8. A collapse or cave-in.
  9. The vagina.
  10. A group that breaks from a larger political party or faction on a particular issue.
  11. Any hollow place, or part; a cavity.
  12. A code cave.
verb
  1. To surrender.
  2. To collapse.
  3. To hollow out or undermine.
  4. To engage in the recreational exploration of caves.
  5. In room-and-pillar mining, to extract a deposit of rock by breaking down a pillar which had been holding it in place.
  6. To work over tailings to dress small pieces of marketable ore.
  7. To dwell in a cave.
intj
  1. look out!; beware!
name
  1. The 18th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
  2. A surname.
  3. A place name:
  4. A town and comune in Lazio, Italy.
  5. A township in Franklin County, Illinois, United States.
  6. A village in Lincoln County, Missouri, United States.
  7. An unincorporated community in Pendleton County, West Virginia, United States.
  8. A settlement in Timaru district, Canterbury, New Zealand.
noun
  1. Acronym of citizens against virtually everything; people who oppose the construction of any type of structure.

Pronunciation

kāv /keɪv/ en-us-cave.ogg /kæɪv/ /kev/ /keːv/ kāʹvē /ˈkeɪvi/

Word forms

cave caves caving caved

Etymology

From Middle English cave, borrowed from Old French cave, from Latin cava (“cavity”), from cavus (“hollow”). Cognate with Tocharian B kor (“throat”), Albanian cup (“odd, uneven”), Ancient Greek κύαρ (kúar, “eye of needle, earhole”), Old Armenian սոր (sor, “hole”), Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “empty, barren, zero”). Displaced native Old English sċræf. More at cavum, cavus and cage.

Synonyms

earthhole spelunk heads up look out watch it

Related words

Cave Junction North Cave South Cave

Derived words

Aladdin's cave Blackfellows Caves breathing cave cave art cave bear caveboy cave cricket cave disease cave diver cave dweller cavefish cave flyer caveful cavegirl cave guest cave hyena caveless cavelet cavelike cave line cave lion caveman cavemate cavemouth Cave of Adullam cave painting cave-painting cave pearl caveperson cave physa cave popcorn cave salamander Caves Beach Caveside cave swallow cave swiftlet cavewoman Denisova Cave encave Fingal's Cave goon cave gypsum cave ice cave incave intercave mom cave palaeocave paleocave salt cave seacave show cave Strinati's cave salamander Subway Cave Tasmanian cave spider The Caves Wind Cave wine cave woman cave Wombeyan Caves block caving
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on C Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary