[f. L. excavāt- ppl. stem of excavāre to hollow out, f. ex- out + cavāre, f. cavus hollow: see CAVE.]
1. trans. To make hollow by removing the inside; to make a hollow in, to hollow out; to dig out (soil) leaving a hollow. Also, To excavate (something) into: to form into by hollowing.
Now chiefly with reference to the removal of earth by digging; the wider use tends to be felt as transf. from this.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 95/2. Take a svveete, & fragrant Apple, excavate the same.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 189. Reserve it [Dung] for Use in some hard-bottom’d shady Place, a little excavated.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., VIII. vi. 416, note (J.). Flat Thecæ, some like Hats, some like Buttons excavated in the middle.
1837. Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 197. (Engineer) So much per cubic yard according to the nature of the soil to be excavated.
1853. Phillips, Rivers Yorksh., viii. 202. The ground is excavated in a circular shape, so as to make a pit.
1866. Dickens, Repr. Pieces, 117. The foot of the cliff is excavated into a cavern.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 45. Viola tricolor … stigma capitate, excavated. Heartsease or Pansy.
2. To form or make (a hole, channel, etc.) by hollowing out.
1839. G. Bird, Nat. Philos., 233. If a cavity be excavated at this point.
1850. Lyell, 2nd Visit U. S., II. 329. One of them began to excavate a hole, and soon entirely disappeared under ground.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., ii. 50. The canal … excavated inside the neural arches.
3. To uncover or lay bare by digging; to unearth. Also fig.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVIII. 381/1. About a fourth part of the city [Pompeii] along the western side of the walls has been excavated.
1844. Mem. Babylonian P’cess, II. 61. In excavating the tomb, a slab has been left about two feet six inches high.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., II. i. 89. A Scotsman … excavated by the labours of the indefatigable Dr M‘Crie.
4. To get out by digging.
1848. S. C. Bartlett, Egypt to Pal., x. (1879), 220. It seems to be as yet an unproved opinion that copper was found and excavated in this place.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xl. (1856), 363. This hole was critically circular, beveled from the under surface, and symmetrically embanked round with the pulpaceous [printed pulpacious] material which he had excavated from the ice.
Hence Excavated ppl. a.; Excavating vbl. sb. (also attrib.)
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 111/2. An excavatede peece of vvoode.
1664. Evelyn, Acc. Archit., 130. Striges … are those excavated Channells by our Workmen call’d Flutings and Groeves.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 124. We come to hollowing or excavating of our Logg.
1712. Blackmore, Creation, V. 740. Deep Caves … Which … wrought with endless Toil, Ran thro’ the faithless excavated Soil.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, III. VI. iii. 167–8. This opened into a covered and excavated way.
1855. H. Spencer, Princ. Psychol. (1870), I. V. ii. 516. The … excavating power of the current.
