[(? a. F. excavation) ad. L. excavātiōn-em, n. of action f. excavāre: see EXCAVATE.] The action of excavating.
1. The action or process of digging out a hollow or hollows in (the earth, etc.); an instance of the same; the result or extent of the process.
1611. in Cotgr., s.v. Excavation.
1623–6. in Cockeram.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., IV. ii. 299. This excavation of the Terrestrial Body, or elevation of other parts thereof whereby the Water subsided.
1750. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The excavation of the foundations of a building … is settled by Palladio at a sixth part of the height of the whole building.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 89. The utter separation of both continents was most probably the effect of excavations by volcanoes.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, 35. All the remains of organic bodies found during the excavations belonged to living species.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 134. The amount of excavation which can be wrought … by means of running water.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 38/2. Digging out the hollows for cellars, &c. … is called the excavation.
2. concr. An excavated space; a cavity or hollow.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Pope, Wks. IV. 45. Pope’s excavation was requisite as an entrance to his garden.
1783. Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 145. All spots … which consist of a dark nucleus, and surrounding umbra, are excavations in the luminous matter of the sun.
1848. S. C. Bartlett, Egypt to Pal., xxiv. (1879), 489. The wine-press was an oblong excavation in the rock.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., App. (1856), 550. All great peninsulas, too, have an excavation or bend inward on their westward side.
3. The process of laying bare by excavating; an unearthing; in quot. fig.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., II. i. 73. The excavation of state papers has thrown [light] on the vast designs of [etc.].
