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Dig   /dɪg/   Listen
Dig

verb
(past & past part. dug, digged is archaic; pres. part. digging)
1.
Turn up, loosen, or remove earth.  Synonyms: cut into, delve, turn over.  "Turn over the soil for aeration"
2.
Create by digging.  Synonym: dig out.  "Dig out a channel"
3.
Work hard.  Synonyms: drudge, fag, grind, labor, labour, moil, toil, travail.  "Lexicographers drudge all day long"
4.
Remove, harvest, or recover by digging.  Synonyms: dig out, dig up.  "Dig coal"
5.
Thrust down or into.  "Dig your foot into the floor"
6.
Remove the inner part or the core of.  Synonyms: excavate, hollow.
7.
Poke or thrust abruptly.  Synonyms: jab, poke, prod, stab.
8.
Get the meaning of something.  Synonyms: apprehend, compass, comprehend, get the picture, grasp, grok, savvy.



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"Dig" Quotes from Famous Books



... speech,' remarked Everard. 'Now you get out of that trick of prize-orationing. I call it snuffery, sir; it's all to your own nose! You're talking to me, not to a gallery. "Worthy of them!" Caesar wraps his head in his robe: he gets his dig in the ribs for all his attitudinizing. It's very well for a man to talk like that who owns no more than his barebodkin life, poor devil. Tall talk's his jewelry: he must have his dandification in bunkum. You ought to know ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... able to define exactly the foundation of the superstition, it was generally supposed that most of the pirates' treasures were guarded by pirate ghosts. In that case, of course, timid individuals would be deterred from going out by themselves at night,—for that was the proper time to dig for buried treasure,—and as it would not have been easy to get together a number of men each brave enough to give the others courage, many of the spots reputed to be the repositories of buried treasure ...
— Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts • Frank Richard Stockton

... easily found again. Do you believe it? I pray you then to take my sleeping-draught; But if you should not care to take it—see! [Draws a dagger. What! have I scared the red rose from your face Into your heart. But this will find it there, And dig it ...
— Becket and other plays • Alfred Lord Tennyson

... Mr. White was accepted, and as Mr. Bolt, experienced in the delays of builders, tied him tight as to time, he, on his part, made a prompt and stringent contract with Messrs. Whitbread, the brickmakers, and began to dig ...
— Put Yourself in His Place • Charles Reade

... all sorts of games with marbles, how to make and spin more kinds of tops than most boys ever heard of, how to make the latest things in plain and fancy kites, where to dig bait and how to fish, all about boats and sailing, and a host of other things which can be done out of doors. The volume is profusely illustrated and will be an unmixed delight ...
— Shelters, Shacks and Shanties • D.C. Beard

... that is a dig at us people who live in the country," said Mrs. Beach. "Because you don't get ...
— The Squire's Daughter - Being the First Book in the Chronicles of the Clintons • Archibald Marshall

... opposite to its natural habits. Their wants are attended to as much as possible, but cannot be always met; and so we have here a devoted mother, worn out by the demands of her cubs, and vainly anxious to hide herself from daylight and man's gaze. She has long given up trying to dig or scratch her way out. All she can do is to lean against the wall, ready for a last defence, should anybody come within her prison. She dares not curl up into a ball, like the one cub, and go to sleep; while this little careless imp on her back, happy and ...
— Chatterbox Stories of Natural History • Anonymous

... hated you," she announced gravely. "I gazed at you and a soulless little pig stared back ... but who knows? Maybe down under your vanity and selfishness you have after all the cobwebbed little germ of a soul. If so we must dig it out and brush it off ...
— Destiny • Charles Neville Buck

... sealed and shut away from all that can displease the heavenly Gardener, who appeared under that form to Magdalen!" At the sight of fountains: "When will fountains of living water spring up in our hearts to life eternal? How long shall we continue to dig for ourselves miserable cisterns, turning our backs upon the pure source of the water of life? Ah! when shall we draw freely from the Saviour's fountains! When shall we bless God for the rivers ...
— The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales • Jean Pierre Camus

... tail; While on her neck the stormy mane kept tossing to the gale! How fearfully she roll'd her eyes between the earth and sky, As if in wild uncertainty to gallop or to fly! While with her hoof she scoop'd the sand as if before she gave My plunge into eternity she meant to dig my grave! ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood

... ceased to regret that there was not more corporate life in our medical school, but I believe that conditions have been greatly improved since my day. Here and there two or three classmates would "dig" together, but otherwise, except at lectures or in hospitals, we seldom met unless it was on the athletic teams. We had no playground of our own, and so, unable to get other hospitals to combine, when ...
— A Labrador Doctor - The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell

... you to watch. Besides, I want to dig so that I can put the earth back in a hurry, and fix this place so that it won't look as ...
— The Belgians to the Front • Colonel James Fiske

... after his arrival at the rendezvous, where he observed cut in the bark of a tree the word "Dig," and on throwing up the earth found an iron casket deposited by Brahe, giving the date of his departure and reasons for withdrawal before the appointed time. Of far deeper interest were papers written ...
— Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88 • Various

... clothed in the skins of animals, rudely tanned, rudely wrought, and colored with daubs of clay. For the garments of New York, flocks are tended, fields are cultivated, ships sail on the sea, and men dig in the mountains for dye-stuffs stored in the rocks. The industries of Ka-ni-ga employ stone knives, bone awls, and human muscle; the industries of New York employ the tools of the trades, the machinery of the manufactories, and the power of the sun—for water-power ...
— Sketch of the Mythology of the North American Indians • John Wesley Powell

... the thing up again. In a way, it's me you're up against. Not Clark. And you can be pretty sure I know what I'm doing. I've got Clark, and I've got the report of the coroner's inquest, and I'll get Melis. I'm going to get to the bottom of this if I have to dig a hole that ...
— The Breaking Point • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... had somewhat recovered from his first bewilderment, the old bear moved more rapidly, leading him toward a swampy, grassy pocket, where she thought there might be roots to dig. The way was steep, winding down between rocks and stunted trees and tangles of thick shrubbery, with here and there a black-green spur of the fir forests thrust up tentatively from the lower slopes. Now ...
— The Watchers of the Trails - A Book of Animal Life • Charles G. D. Roberts

... was simple. The picture of the tree was to show where it was hidden and the object at its base is intended as a shovel to tell that I would have to dig for the treasure, but," and his face fell, "how are we ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... with his paltry onion-stone, Put me where I may look at him! True peach, Rosy and flawless: how I earned the prize! Draw close: that conflagration of my church —What then? So much was saved if aught were missed! My sons, ye would not be my death? Go dig The white-grape vineyard where the oil-press stood, Drop water gently till the surface sink, And if ye find. . . Ah God, I know not, I! . . . Bedded in store of rotten fig-leaves soft, {40} And corded up in a tight olive-frail, Some lump, ah God, of ...
— Introduction to Robert Browning • Hiram Corson

... again; so they did not care much whether they made mistakes or not, and often they missed out parts of the book altogether. They little thought that, thousands of years after they were dead, scholars would dig up their writings again, and read them, ...
— Peeps at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt • James Baikie

... made ready for a dig back, of course, and was going to surprise the man; but somehow he spoke so kind and generous and 'peared to be so properly sorry for me, that I struck another note. I thought I saw a chance of getting on his blind side and being let off, so I kept away from such a ticklish subject as the canister. ...
— The Torch and Other Tales • Eden Phillpotts

... We dig the wells of life, And God the waters gives; We win our way by strife, Then he within us lives; And only war could make us meet For peace so sacred ...
— Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul • Various

... was buried in the Graves cabin. Mr. W. C. Graves helped dig the grave near one side of the cabin, and laid the little one to rest. One of the most heart-rending features of this Donner tragedy is the number of infants that suffered. Mrs. Breen, Pike, Foster, McCutchen, Eddy, Keseberg, ...
— History of the Donner Party • C.F. McGlashan

... and beast. This is said not without reason, for a master having a sick servant, and there are many so, and observing from his declining condition, he would finally die, and that there was no probability of his enjoying any more service from him, made him, sick and languishing as he was, dig his own grave, in which he was to be laid a few days afterwards, in order not to busy any of the others with it, they having their hands full in ...
— Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680 • Jasper Danckaerts

... however, who dig somewhat deeper than this into the possible evils of dogma. It is felt by many that strong philosophical conviction, while it does not (as they perceive) produce that sluggish and fundamentally frivolous condition which we call bigotry, does produce a certain concentration, ...
— Heretics • Gilbert K. Chesterton

... would not freeze in any winter. The sides were left shelving, and not stoned; but the sun having never shone on them, the sand still keeps its place. It was but two hours' work. I took particular pleasure in this breaking of ground, for in almost all latitudes men dig into the earth for an equable temperature. Under the most splendid house in the city is still to be found the cellar where they store their roots as of old, and long after the superstructure has disappeared posterity will remark its dent in the earth. The house is still but a sort of porch ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. X (of X) - America - II, Index • Various

... sets the natives of that village to searching! What's to prevent him? You know the kind of job they'd make of it—blade by blade of grass—pebble by pebble. Where they found a trace of loosened dirt they'd dig." ...
— The Ivory Trail • Talbot Mundy

... chicken's claws do scratching for worms; and whenever his watch began to swing violently it meant that he was over a spring. He found three springs within a few yards of each other, so we've only to dig, and get ...
— The Guests Of Hercules • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... forks, anything, and dig a hole outside in the paddock," he went on. "Make a deep hole, a yard deep at the least—then get some straw, some paraffin, turpentine, anything that will burn furiously and quickly, and we will soon finish ...
— Cleek, the Master Detective • Thomas W. Hanshew

... and ruined! I know we all have been implicated in the "great wrong," yet I think the comparatively innocent suffer today more than the guilty. And the result—will the people save the country they love so well, or will the rulers dig ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... uncovered a burrow, and a dachshund disappeared. Then from below ground came the sounds of fighting. The dachshunde had found their prey. The foresters ran about, stooping to locate the sound. When they discovered the spot a dozen of them at once began to dig as fast ...
— As Seen By Me • Lilian Bell

... go to Scarborough for their holidays in the summer, as they run down the steep paths with their spades and buckets to dig on the beach, they are too busy to pay much attention to the high cliff that juts out against the sky above the steep red roofs of the old town. But if they do look up for a moment they notice a pile ...
— A Book of Quaker Saints • Lucy Violet Hodgkin

... bleeding feet We dig and heap, lay stone on stone; We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day, and wish 't were done. Not till the hours of light return All we ...
— The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln • Francis Fisher Browne

... answer. He flung the can over into a field and hopped into the car. He regretted that he had no spurs to dig into its sides, no curb bit to jerk. He owed his destruction to that car. For want of gasolene, the car was lost; for want of the car, ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes

... is achieved with the highest degree of perfection compatible with the make of the world. It is our part to transform Nature's large conception into our own smaller organic mould, not otherwise than the plants, to whom we are far back akin, who dig their flexible roots deep into the moist and fruitful earth, and so are able to lift up glorious heads ...
— Little Essays of Love and Virtue • Havelock Ellis

... environment. It will stretch out pseudopodia to reach solid objects to which to cling; it will attempt to return to these objects when dislodged; it will actively absorb food. Higher up in the animal scale, "Rats run about, smell, dig, or gnaw, without real reference to the business in hand. In the same way Jack (a dog) scrabbles and jumps, the kitten wanders and picks, the otter slips about everywhere like ground lightning, the elephant fumbles ceaselessly, the monkey pulls ...
— Human Traits and their Social Significance • Irwin Edman

... to them not only the worship of God, nor an act by which they recalled and commemorated better days, but was besides an exercise of culture, where all they knew of art and letters was united and expressed. And it made a man's heart sorry for the good fathers of yore who had taught them to dig and to reap, to read and to sing, who had given them European mass-books which they still preserve and study in their cottages, and who had now passed away from all authority and influence in that land—to be ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 2 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... journeyed on ten miles more before a promising spot was reached, and the guide and Hippy began to dig for the precious water that Hi said ...
— Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders on the Great American Desert • Jessie Graham Flower

... the rushes. This is the deepest part of the wild dingle. How uneven the ground is! Surely these excavations, now so thoroughly clothed with vegetation, must originally have been huge gravel pits; there is no other way of accounting for the labyrinth, for they do dig gravel in such capricious meanders; but the quantity seems incredible. Well! there is no end of guessing! We are getting amongst the springs, and must turn back. Round this corner, where on ledges like fairy terraces the orchises and arums grow, ...
— Our Village • Mary Russell Mitford

... transplanting. Some stretch a line, and cut out a trench only deep enough to allow the roots to be laid out without doubling; and they are spread out like a fan perpendicularly against the side of the cut, the crown of the plant being kept two inches below the surface of the ground. Some dig out a trench, and form little hillocks of fine soil, over which the roots are spread, extending like the sticks of an umbrella. Others make a ridge, astride which they set the plants, spreading their roots on each side of the ridge; and, again, ...
— The Field and Garden Vegetables of America • Fearing Burr

... aching hands and bleeding feet, We dig and heap, lay stone on stone; We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day and wish 't were done. Not till the hours of light return All we have ...
— The Story of Patsy • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

... road for thy treading! May he level the mountain for thy foot! During thy night [156] the word that wilt rejoice may Lugal-banda convey, and stand by thee in thy endeavor! Like a youth may he establish thy endeavor! In the river of Huwawa as thou plannest, wash thy feet! Round about thee dig a well! May there be pure water constantly for thy libation Goblets of water pour out to Shamash! [May] Lugal-banda take note of it!" [Enkidu] opened his mouth and spoke to Gish: "[Since thou art resolved] to take the road. ...
— An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic • Anonymous

... carefully arranged of all the rooms. It is rather small and is directly connected with the main outer chamber somewhat like the nursery of the mole. So skilfully is it situated that it sometimes happens a hunter will dig into a fox's burrow and never discover the nest of young, and later the clever mother will return to carry away her babes, which are usually five to six in number. Adjoining the nursery are two or three storage rooms filled with food for the winter. The number of bones ...
— The Human Side of Animals • Royal Dixon

... possibility. The Monk. Simon tried to shake off that thought. There was no sense in it. Queer how anything like that masquerader's mischief-making could get under a sensible man's skin—dig its way into his brain until it became an obsession! Suppose he had set fire to the tannery—was that any reason to believe he had proceeded to further activities the same night? There was not a shred of proof connecting ...
— The Monk of Hambleton • Armstrong Livingston

... For at that moment one of the birds had come up behind him, and almost before he had heard Jem's warning cry, he was made aware of the bird's presence by a sharp dig of its beak in the hand holding a portion of his dinner, ...
— The Adventures of Don Lavington - Nolens Volens • George Manville Fenn

... astonished, my girl, to see you poor and in rags, clothed like a fagot, running barefoot about the fields on the Sabbath, when you carry about you more treasures than you could dig up in the grounds of the abbey. Do not the townspeople pursue, and ...
— Droll Stories, Complete - Collected From The Abbeys Of Touraine • Honore de Balzac

... overspread the before cheery face of Charlemont; he sat for some moments tremulously silent; then pushing a full decanter towards the guest, in a choked voice, said: 'No, no! when by art, and care, and time, flowers are made to bloom over a grave, who would seek to dig all up again only to know the mystery?—The wine.' When both glasses were filled, Charlemont took his, and lifting it, added lowly: 'If ever, in days to come, you shall see ruin at hand, and, thinking you ...
— The Confidence-Man • Herman Melville

... our clothes in the river. Women who hoe corn, dig in a garden, and wash clothes, earn ...
— Lazarre • Mary Hartwell Catherwood

... dissuaded them from erecting villages on the line of public roads, those roads became useless, and their lasting materials are only to be found, tho' not distinguished, in the foundations of the neighbouring habitations. As it would always be more easy to carry away the materials of a Roman road than dig for them in a quarry, it has happened that those materials have been in general so intirely removed, as to leave almost no where any other trace, than history and ...
— A Walk through Leicester - being a Guide to Strangers • Susanna Watts

... went forth each day—some to do battle, some to the chase; others, again, to dig and to delve in the field—all that they might gain and live, or lose and die. Until there was found among them one, differing from the rest, whose pursuits attracted him not, and so he stayed by the tents with the ...
— The Gentle Art of Making Enemies • James McNeill Whistler

... diktato. Dictator diktatoro. Dictionary vortaro. Die morti. Die presilo. Diet dieto. Differ diferenci. Difference (dispute) malpaco. Difficulty malfacileco. Diffusion vastigo. Dig fosi. Digest digesti. Digit fingro, cifero. Dignify indigi. Dignitary rangulo. Dignity indeco. Dignity (rank) rango. Dilapidate ruinigi. Dilate plilargxigi. Dilatory prokrastema. Diligence diligento. Diligent diligenta. Dim dubeluma. Diminish (length) ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes

... engineers an' pick an' shovel men. We blow the side of a hill all to hell an' what happens? The water just comes a bulgin' down into Dry Creek, an' all we got to do down in the valley, twenty, thirty miles away, is dig ditches an' watch our land turn into ...
— The Short Cut • Jackson Gregory

... first pelted with mud, and then with stones. The consuls in attendance, and the sub-delegate, who come to his assistance, are mauled and repulsed. Meanwhile, some of the most furious begin, before his eyes, "to dig a ditch to bury him in." Protected by five or six brave fellows, amidst a volley of stones, and wounded on the head and on many parts of his body, he succeeds in reaching his carriage. He is finally only saved because ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 2 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 1 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... have been more certainly secured, had an old and highly cultivated farm been purchased for the purpose; but for this the means were wanting. You say, perhaps, that College students should not be required to clear land and dig stumps. True; but when the officers and managers of such an Institution are compelled to do this, and to reach the end desired as best they may through such means, they are certainly entitled to all praise, ...
— Address delivered by Hon. Henry H. Crapo, Governor of Michigan, before the Central Michigan Agricultural Society, at their Sheep-shearing Exhibition held at the Agricultural College Farm, on Thursday, • Henry Howland Crapo

... to be grinding only sand between their teeth. They lost the count of time. They dared not sleep, for that would have meant being buried alive. The could only crouch close to the leaning rock, shake off the sand, blindly dig out their packs, and every moment gasp and cough ...
— Desert Gold • Zane Grey

... the cottage, he carried the dog to a corner of the garden, while he went in for a spade to dig its grave. While he was searching for one in the outhouse, ...
— The Rival Crusoes • W.H.G. Kingston

... by a single Buffalo-bull, running at top speed over the prairie. This messenger assigned to each his part in the attack. The Beaver was ordered to dam the streams, and the Badger to dig trenches under the defences of the Boy Man, so that ...
— Wigwam Evenings - Sioux Folk Tales Retold • Charles Alexander Eastman and Elaine Goodale Eastman

... places where the snow is not more than four or five feet deep, and then the animals can dig holes in the snow with their forefeet until they reach the moss," replied his father. "The reindeer are never housed and seem to like cold weather. They prefer to dig up the moss for themselves, and will not eat it after it has ...
— Gerda in Sweden • Etta Blaisdell McDonald

... fleet, strong towers and tall 400 Adjoining to the tomb, and every tower Shall have its ponderous gate, commodious pass Affording to the mounted charioteer. And last, without those towers and at their foot, Dig we a trench, which compassing around 405 Our camp, both steeds and warriors shall exclude, And all fierce inroad of the haughty foe. So counsell'd he, whom every Chief approved. In Troy meantime, at ...
— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer

... Hebrew, in which he pleads that He who in the famous times of old revealed to Moses the bones of Joseph would make known by a sign the place of the Rood, vowing to believe in Christ if his prayer is granted. X. A steam rises from the ground. There they dig, and at a depth of twenty feet three crosses are found. Which is the holy Rood? A dead man is carried by; Judas brings the corpse in contact with the crosses one after another, and the touch of the third restores life. XI. Satan laments that he has suffered a new defeat, ...
— Anglo-Saxon Literature • John Earle

... exclaimed in agony. "What will become of me?" I considered there was no time to lose, and it being then moon-light, I ordered my servants to take up one of the large pieces of marble, with which the court of my house was paved, dig a hole, and there inter the corpse of the young lady. After replacing the stone, I put on a travelling suit, took what money I had; and having locked up every thing, affixed my own seal on the door of my house. This done I went to the jewel-merchant my landlord, paid him what I owed, with ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 2 • Anon.

... Maud rushed away to get ready. Will would n't come up, he was so snowy, and Fanny was glad, because with her he was bashful, awkward, and silent, so Tom went down and entertained him with Maud's report. They were very good friends, but led entirely different lives, Will being a "dig," and Tom a "bird," or, in plain English, one was a hard student, and the other a jolly young gentleman. Tom had rather patronized Will, who did n't like it, and showed that he did n't by refusing to borrow money of him, or accept any of his invitations to join the clubs and societies ...
— An Old-fashioned Girl • Louisa May Alcott

... an uneven line, stood stupidly staring at the long vistas of haze. The slim fire-warden wheeled her mare to face them, speaking very quietly, explaining how deep to dig, how far a margin might be left in safety, how many men were to begin there, and at what ...
— A Young Man in a Hurry - and Other Short Stories • Robert W. Chambers

... [74] Dig. 21. 1. 40-42 (from the edict of the curule aediles) Ne quis canem, verrem vel minorem aprum, lupum, ursum, pantheram, leonem ... qua vulgo iter fiet, ita habuisse velit, ut cuiquam nocere damnumve ...
— A History of Rome, Vol 1 - During the late Republic and early Principate • A H.J. Greenidge

... cliff-seam measuring twenty-five feet in thickness. It was found to burn well in the steamer on the first trial. Gold is washed for in the beds of rivers, within a couple of days of Tette. The natives are fully aware of its value, but seldom search for it, and never dig deeper than four or five feet. They dread lest the falling in of the sand of the river's bed should bury them. In former times, when traders went with hundreds of slaves to the washings, the produce was considerable. It is now insignificant. The gold-producing lands have always ...
— A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries • David Livingstone

... for laying out our clothes, has not the kind Clothing Industry provided handy manuals of instruction? With their assistance any man can lay out the garments proper to any function, be it a morning dig in the garden, a noon wedding at the White House, or (if you can conceive it) a midnight supper with ...
— The Perfect Gentleman • Ralph Bergengren

... nature terminates in some one thing. Wherefore it is impossible for that which is accidental to be the proper effect of an active natural principle. No natural cause can therefore have for its proper effect that a man intending to dig a grave finds a treasure. Now it is manifest that a acts after the manner of a natural principle: wherefore its effects in this world are natural. It is therefore impossible that any active power of a heavenly body be ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas

... already swept away by the first comers, and those who follow are to win their treasure by long-protracted and painful exertion. - Broken in spirit and in fortune, many returned in disgust to their native shores, while others remained where they were, to die in despair. They thought to dig for gold; but ...
— The History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William H. Prescott

... the defence, said he had received from the senator himself, as he was passing the chateau of Gondreville on his way to the masquerade at Arcis, an order to dig over that particular piece of ground which the senator had remarked ...
— An Historical Mystery • Honore de Balzac

... all on the surface," said Rainham gravely. "You have to dig pretty deep to find out what ...
— A Comedy of Masks - A Novel • Ernest Dowson and Arthur Moore

... set for filming the scenes with the big gun in them. Contrary to expectations, no pictures could be taken, as the throwing up of the earthworks had not been finished. But a number of men from both "armies" were set to work, and as it afforded good practice for the militia they were called on to dig trenches, throw up ridges of earth, and go ...
— The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays - Or, The Sham Battles at Oak Farm • Laura Lee Hope

... To set the trap, dig a hole in the soil to a depth of fifteen inches, (27) circular in shape, with a circumference at the top exactly corresponding to the crown and narrowing towards the bottom. For the rope and wooden clog likewise remove sufficient earth to ...
— The Sportsman - On Hunting, A Sportsman's Manual, Commonly Called Cynegeticus • Xenophon

... then unloaded a sand-anchor—an immense cross—and immediately set to work with shovels to dig a hole in the sand and bury it. While this was being done two others were busy placing a bronze cannon (two and one-half-inch bore) in position; another got out boxes containing small rope wound criss-cross fashion ...
— Stories of Inventors - The Adventures Of Inventors And Engineers • Russell Doubleday

... was that of both the peon and the Americans, who copied the untutored tongue of the former, often ignorant of its faults, and generally not in the least anxious to improve, nor indeed to get any other advantage from the country except the gold and silver they could dig out of it. Laborers and bosses commonly used "pierra" for piedra; "sa' pa' fuera" for to leave the mine, "croquesi" for I believe so, commonly ignorant even of the fact that this is not a single word. In the mess-hall were heard strange mixtures of the two languages, as when a man rising ...
— Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras - Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond • Harry A. Franck

... ought really to take some bait with us," remarked Romola casually. "There isn't time, though, to go and dig for lob-worms. What's to be done ...
— Monitress Merle • Angela Brazil

... of their own kind . . . with no lack of respect . . . some new friend of Mrs. Oglethorpe's—they were too young to remember Mary Ogden. . . . She would have many "knights" on the morrow . . . he felt on the far side of a rapidly widening gulf . . . and he had once sought to dig a gulf! Disapproved! Questioned! Tried to forget her! He wished ...
— Black Oxen • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

... whom they live and agree very well; and their Children live very obediently under them. The Boys go out a Fishing with their Fathers; and the Girls live at home with their Mothers: And when the Girls are grown pretty strong, they send them to their Plantations, to dig Yames and Potatoes; of which they bring home on their Heads every day enough to serve the whole Family; for they have no ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898—Volume 39 of 55 • Various

... With looking from the lattice-lights at me, A poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through The dark, and leaning up a cypress tree? The chrism is on thine head,—on mine, the dew,— And Death must dig the level where ...
— The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Volume IV • Elizabeth Barrett Browning

... beseeching mercy from his heir. I, a petitioner to Octavia's brother! Yet, no, no! There are still a hundred chances of avoiding the horrible doom. But whoever wishes to compel the field to bear fruits must dig sturdily, draw the buckets from the well, plough, and sow the seed. To work, then, to work! When Antony returns he must find all things ready. The first success will restore his lost energy. I glanced through yonder letter while talking with the Exegetus; ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... the shawl at the throat with a silver brooch. Old Mag, as she lay upon the camp bed, resembled a dead Highlander. Arrangements were made for the funeral, and Paul paddled Mrs. Godfrey and children to the sloop and then returned to dig his mother's grave. Next morning Paul came down to the sloop looking very sad. He said that he had not closed his eyes during the night. He sat watching through the long night at the side of his ...
— Young Lion of the Woods - A Story of Early Colonial Days • Thomas Barlow Smith

... land and sea, who dig, and toil, and fret to find happiness, come back at last to learn that the sweet-faced guest has been waiting close by our door all ...
— Levels of Living - Essays on Everyday Ideals • Henry Frederick Cope

... gold-dust had already been brought in. The gold fever had commenced, and men of all ages, ranks, and professions were fitting themselves out with knapsacks, spades, washers, and other apparatus for the gold-fields. People were surprised that James took matters so calmly. "I prefer that others should dig for me—an occupation for which I never had a fancy, except for an hour or two in my garden in a morning," he answered. "If people rush out of the colony, as it is expected they will, the price of stock will rise very greatly, and I shall have ample fortune for all my wishes." It did ...
— The Gilpins and their Fortunes - A Story of Early Days in Australia • William H. G. Kingston

... infirmity on my old age as really had reduced me to the state in which I feigned to be, I should have brought its misery upon myself. Oh, you whose wealth, like mine, has been a source of continual unhappiness, leading you to distrust the nearest and dearest, and to dig yourself a living grave of suspicion and reserve; take heed that, having cast off all whom you might have bound to you, and tenderly, you do not become in your decay the instrument of such a man as this, and waken in another world to the knowledge of ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens

... Secretary of State, and now in Kentucky, is a friend to the blacks further than his personal interest extends?... Does he care a pinch of snuff about Africa—whether it remains a land of pagans and of blood, or of Christians, so long as he gets enough of her sons and daughters to dig up gold and silver for him?... Was he not made by the Creator to sit in the shade, and make the blacks work without remuneration for their services, to support him and his family? I have been for some time taking notice of this man's speeches and public writings, but never to my knowledge have ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... in charge and spoke their tongue gave them their tools and bade them dig narrow ditches head deep. From them they ran tunnels into deep caves hollowed out far under the ground. They burrowed like moles, cutting galleries here and there, reinforcing them with timbers, and lining them with a stone which they made out of dust and water. ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various

... the clouds, the stars, the sun, the moon, and the revolutions of all the planets. Dig and draw up some valuable meditations from the depths of the earth, and search them through the vast oceans of water. Extract some intellectual improvement from the minerals and metals; from the wonders of nature among the vegetables and herbs, trees and flowers. ...
— The Illustrated London Reading Book • Various

... modify it slightly at geometrically determined distances. The work of boring possesses no great interest. In the month of July, we see the insect, perched on a bramble-stump, attack the pith and dig itself a well. When this is deep enough, the Osmia goes down, tears off a few particles of pith and comes up again to fling her load outside. This monotonous labour continues until the Bee deems the gallery long enough, or until, as often happens, she finds ...
— Bramble-bees and Others • J. Henri Fabre

... has chosen this spot under the laurel bush," explained Uncle Squeaky. "First we must dig a cellar where he can ...
— Grand-Daddy Whiskers, M.D. • Nellie M. Leonard

... light of day came quickly now, and with it the youth's progress became more rapid. He figured that if he lost no time in further investigation of the creek he would arrive at camp by noon, and they would dig up the skeleton without delay. There was little snow in the chasm, in spite of the lateness of the season, and if the roll of bark held the secret of the lost gold it would be possible for them to locate the treasure before other snows ...
— The Wolf Hunters - A Tale of Adventure in the Wilderness • James Oliver Curwood

... strange little procession making its way slowly through the untrodden snow, but did not attempt to approach or molest it. They reached at last the lonely spot where they were to leave the mortal remains of poor Matamore, and the stable-boy, who had accompanied them carrying a spade, set to work to dig the grave. Several carcasses of animals lay scattered about close at hand, partly hidden by the snow—among them two or three skeletons of horses, picked clean by birds of prey; their long heads, at the end of the slender vertebral columns, peering out horribly at them, and their ribs, like the sticks ...
— Captain Fracasse • Theophile Gautier

... and hard beset By death in various forms, dark snares, and dogs, And more unpitying men, the garden seeks Urged on by fearless want. The bleating kind Eye the bleak heaven, and next the glistening earth, With looks of dumb despair; then, sad-dispersed Dig for the withered ...
— The Age of Pope - (1700-1744) • John Dennis

... Turning his cheerful face upon her, he motioned to a little wooden tobacco box on the bare table. "A nest full of swallows tumbled down my chimney log in the night," he explained, "and they cried so loud I couldn't sleep, so I thought I might as well get up and dig 'em a worm or two. Do you happen to know where a bit of wool is?" Cynthia threw her bundle of kindling-wood on the hearth and stood regarding him with apathetic eyes. "You'd much better wring their necks," ...
— The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields • Ellen Glasgow

... field of Philippi! There where thy first step was made in the only life that thou own'st as existence, shall the ladder itself rot from under thy footing. There, where thy softer victim slunk to death from the deceit of thy love, shall deceit like thine own dig a grave for thy frigid ambition. I borrow thy quiver of fraud; its still arrows shall strike thee; and thou too shalt say, when the barb pierces home, 'This comes from the hand of a friend.' Ay, at Lansmere, at Lansmere, shall the end crown the whole! Go, and dot on the ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... then waited, blocked. A military motor had stuck deeply in the mud and the wheels were buzzing round uselessly, so we helped to dig her out. Every one's inside cried for breakfast, and when at last we found a swampy plain, Whatmough and Cutting flung themselves upon an old tree trunk and cut it ...
— The Luck of Thirteen - Wanderings and Flight through Montenegro and Serbia • Jan Gordon

... happy, pastoral life—dig in a hole all day, and get drunk religiously at night. They are respected, admired, and esteemed. Suddenly they find a nugget, and lo! the whole tenor of their ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris

... refused to dig little wells near the banks of the Platte, as many others did; for we had soon learned that the water obtained was strongly charged with alkali, while the river water was comparatively pure, except for the sediment, so fine as seemingly to be ...
— Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail • Ezra Meeker

... to fish the child out-the only thing was to dig down beside the small shaft. We could hear him faintly, and we began to dig. We started a shaft about four feet square. The sandy soil caved badly, but men with horses running all the way brought out lumber ...
— The Voyage of the Rattletrap • Hayden Carruth

... For every item of our inheritance requires an appropriate growth-soil if it is actively to live. Each life is an adjustment of internal character to external conditions. A garden that has been choked with weeds may remain flowerless for many succeeding years, but dig that garden, and sleeping flowers, not known to live within the memory of man, may spring to life. May it not be that in the garden of woman's inheritance there are buried seeds, lying dormant, which at the liberating touch of opportunity ...
— The Truth About Woman • C. Gasquoine Hartley

... easy. All he had to do was to go at dusk to the cocoanut grove by the river and dig holes under two trees. Then he was to climb a tree, get the cocoanut that grew the highest, and, after taking off the husk and punching in one of the little eyes, ...
— Philippine Folklore Stories • John Maurice Miller

... his flocks and herds. [Note 42 at end of para.] The waters are occupied and enclosed, and access to them in frequently forbidden. The fields are fenced in, and the natives are no longerat liberty to dig up roots—the white man claims the timber, and the very firewood itself is occasion ally denied to them. Do they pass by the habitation of the intruder, they are probably chased away or bitten by his dogs, and for this they can get no redress. [Note 43 at end of para.] Have they dogs of their own, ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre

... the roots, and found that some one had taken them away, and he ran back, exclaiming, "Grandmother, did you take the roots away?" And she answered, "No, my child; perhaps some ghost has taken them off; let us dig no ...
— Sketch of the Mythology of the North American Indians • John Wesley Powell

... careful. Once when you lay upon the brink of the grave, unconscious, I knelt at your side and took you in my arms; laid your head on my heart, felt your cheek touch mine. Then and there I made a covenant with my soul; and no other man's arms shall ever enfold you. Ah, my Rosa Alba! I could dig your grave with my own hands, sooner than see that thief claim you. I am a proud man, and you have dragged me through the slough of humiliation, but to-day, as I bid you good-bye, I realize how one felt, who looking at the bust of him she ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson

... ever since. Ralph had watched his heavy face day after day staring vacantly across the room, and his hand that held the pen dig and prick at the ...
— The King's Achievement • Robert Hugh Benson

... Mulberry Street a month before that despicable rule about the uniform was blotted out. His whole term of office on the Police Board was marked by acts of recognition of bravery and faithful service. Many times he had to dig the facts out for himself or ran upon them by accident. There was no practice in the Department of recording the good work done by the men on the force so ...
— Theodore Roosevelt and His Times - A Chronicle of the Progressive Movement; Volume 47 in The - Chronicles Of America Series • Harold Howland

... the prime of life, to brave his Maker, and rush into His presence by an act of his own erring hand, and one so unnatural and preposterous. But it never once occurred to me, as an object of curiosity, to dig up the mouldering bones of the Culprit, which I considered as the most revolting of all objects. The thing was, however, done last month, and a discovery made of one of the greatest natural phenomena that I have heard of in ...
— The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner • James Hogg

... possible, as if to strike with it, and shuffle along the ground toward them, scolding all the while in a harsh voice. I feared at first that they might kill him, but I soon found that he was able to take care of himself. I would turn over stones and dig into ant-hills for him, and he would lick up the ants so fast that a stream of them seemed going into his mouth unceasingly. I kept him till late in the fall, when he disappeared, probably going south, and I never saw ...
— Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and, Other Papers • John Burroughs

... Turnip.—Two men were once walking together and talking. One said, "My father raised such an enormous turnip once that he used the top of it to thresh wheat upon, and when it was ripe had to dig it out of the ground."—"My father," said the other, "ordered such an enormous kettle made once that the forty workmen who made it all had room to sit on the inside and work at the same time; and they were a year in finishing it."—"Yes," ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. • Various

... workshops deserted, the sailors left their ships, the shepherds their sheep, the shop-keepers their shops—all with the gold fever. But that early madness soon passed away, and Australia got the benefit of the gold discoverers in a great increase of population. Most of those who came to dig gold remained to dig potatoes and other more certain ...
— Peeps At Many Lands: Australia • Frank Fox

... the spade, he raised it. When the first flag was raised it was not hard to raise the others near it, and he moved three or four of them out of their places. The clay that was under them was soft and easy to dig, but he had not thrown up more than three or four shovelfuls when he felt the iron touch something soft like flesh. He threw up three or four more shovelfuls from around it, and then he saw that it was another body that was buried in the ...
— The Haunters & The Haunted - Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural • Various

... his directions, he assisted also in the execution of them; and while his attendant laboured to dig a shallow and mishapen grave, a task which the state of the soil, perplexed with roots, and hardened by the influence of the frost, rendered very difficult, the divine read a few passages out of the funeral service, partly in order to appease the superstitious terrors of Joceline, and ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott

... was so rainy that the sentries preferred their boxes, and did not disturb me in my work. The log-house was built with upright posts, deeply fixed in the ground, and horizontal logs laid upon it. I had to dig under these, and work a hole sufficient to admit my body to pass. I began in the dark, soon after tattoo. It was some while after midnight before my work was done, when I lifted my hand up under ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray

... considered a most valuable bitter tonic; and of this plant the curious flesh-colored flowers on their long green stems grew pretty freely by the stream-side in the valley. The time of flowering was not yet come, but Joan knew the dull leaf of the herb well enough and, that found, she could easily dig up the root, wherein its virtue dwelt. But before starting on her search, the girl rested a while where the serrated foliage and creamy blossom of the meadowsweets laced and fringed the granite of her couch; and, as she sat there, her eye taking ...
— Lying Prophets • Eden Phillpotts

... enormous.[87] The convents made themselves masters of the valuable libraries of the Jews, one at Stamford, another at Oxford, from which the celebrated Roger Bacon is said to have derived great information; and long after, the common people would dig in the places they had frequented, in hopes of ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume VI. • Various

... sunbeam's fleeting glow 175 Fulfils its destined, though invisible work, The universal Spirit guides; nor less, When merciless ambition, or mad zeal, Has led two hosts of dupes to battlefield, That, blind, they there may dig each other's graves, 180 And call the sad work glory, does it rule All passions: not a thought, a will, an act, No working of the tyrant's moody mind, Nor one misgiving of the slaves who boast Their servitude, to hide the shame they feel, 185 ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... line of similar trenches, while the road itself was defended by a series of stone conning towers—to use a Naval term—all loopholed and commanding the entire passage. It was a wonderful revelation to us after the "prepare to dig trench" exercise prescribed by our own drill book. The Governor of Natal, Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, happened to ride by when our Naval guns were drawn up, and when he found that I was in command he sent for me, was very kind, and said he would write to my father ...
— With the Naval Brigade in Natal (1899-1900) - Journal of Active Service • Charles Richard Newdigate Burne

... finger work—tasks wearing to body and mind in the extreme, but of a sort wholly failing to provoke that reaction of the vital forces which builds up and develops the parts exercised. From time immemorial the boy had gone out to dig and hunt with his father, or contend for the mastery with other youths while the girl stayed at home to spin and bake. Up to fifteen she might share with her brother a few of his more insipid sports, but with the beginnings of womanhood came the end ...
— Equality • Edward Bellamy

... I dig and plant till it is dark; all my works are revived and proceeding. When will you come and assist? You know I have an absolute promise, and shall now every day expect you. My compliments ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2 • Horace Walpole

... evening at Wierzchownia, when the heart wounds are scars, I will tell it to you in murmurs so that the spiders cannot hear, and so that my voice can go from my lips to your heart. They are dreadful things, which dig into life to the bone, deflowering all, and making one distrust all, except you for whom I ...
— Women in the Life of Balzac • Juanita Helm Floyd

... time, Mr. Chuck began to dig. He dug and he dug and he dug. When his neighbors grew curious and asked questions, he smiled good-naturedly and said that he was trying an experiment. When he had made a long hall which went down so deep that he was quite sure that Jack ...
— Mother West Wind "How" Stories • Thornton W. Burgess

... give but a few instances at random, chiefly from my own doorstep in Upolu, during the past month (October 1890). One of my workmen was sent the other day to the banana patch, there to dig; this is a hollow of the mountain, buried in woods, out of all sight and cry of mankind; and long before dusk Lafaele was back again beside the cook-house with embarrassed looks; he dared not longer stay alone, ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 18 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... I explained, "it's no more than I would have to do if we took a homestead out west. I'd as soon dig in Massachusetts as Montana." ...
— One Way Out - A Middle-class New-Englander Emigrates to America • William Carleton

... in the sky, she was swept along till she beheld the Arch of St. Martin far below, with the rays of the sun shining on it. Then she swooped down, and, hiding herself behind a buttress so that she could not be detected from below, she set herself to dig out the nearest blue stones with her beak. It was even harder work than she had expected; but at last it was done, and hope arose in her heart. She next drew out a piece of string that she had found hanging from a tree, and sitting down ...
— The Orange Fairy Book • Andrew Lang

... suppression of his natural instincts which has brought him to his present pass. At first he will probably murmur in a fatigued voice that he cannot think of anything at all that interests him. Then let him dig down among his buried instincts. Let him recall his bright past of dreams, before he had become a victim imprisoned in the eternal groove. Everybody has, or has had, a secret desire, a hidden leaning. Let him discover what his ...
— The Plain Man and His Wife • Arnold Bennett

... momentous rubber of whist, for the pair that lost was to dig a fishing hole through the seven feet of ice and snow ...
— The Turtles of Tasman • Jack London

... the sturdy smith, in a loud voice, and tearing aside the vest from his breast with his left hand; "come all—Colonna and Orsini—dig to this heart with your sharp blades, and when you have reached the centre, you will find there the object of your common hatred—'Rienzi and ...
— Rienzi • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... nails, pick your teeth, comb your hair, or perform any of the necessary operations of the toilet in company. All these things should be carefully attended to in the privacy of your own room. To pick the nose, dig the ears, or scratch the head or any part of the person in company is still worse. Watch yourself carefully, and if you have any such habits, break them up at once. These may seem little things, but they have their weight, and go far in determining the character ...
— How To Behave: A Pocket Manual Of Republican Etiquette, And Guide To Correct Personal Habits • Samuel R Wells

... the 19th, but was stopped three miles away by the German masses coming from Courtrai, and had to entrench on a line running east of Gheluvelt. On the same day the 1st Corps detrained at St. Omer and marched towards Ypres. Instead of advancing on Thourout and beyond, it had to dig itself in on a line of defence from Rawlinson's left at Zonnebeke to Bixschoote, where the French began their own and the Belgian front along the Yser ...
— A Short History of the Great War • A.F. Pollard

... we shall find her. Don't you see the sand has blown over her, and she is safe enough within it. To save ourselves trouble, we will dig a line parallel with the beach, and another at right angles, and the chances are we shall strike some part ...
— The Three Admirals • W.H.G. Kingston

... the nine-tailed cat Shall they who used it writhe, sir; And curates lean, and rectors fat, Shall dig the ground they tithe, sir. Down with your Bayleys, and your Bests, Your Giffords, and your Gurneys: We'll clear the island of the ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 3. (of 4) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... must see that such an evil as slavery will yield only to the most radical treatment. If you consider the work we have to do, you will not think us needlessly aggressive, or that we dig down unnecessarily deep in laying the foundations of our enterprise. A money power of two thousand millions of dollars, as the prices of slaves now range, held by a small body of able and desperate men; that body raised into a political aristocracy by special constitutional provisions; cotton, ...
— American Eloquence, Volume II. (of 4) - Studies In American Political History (1896) • Various

... succession of opportunities. Yet however numerous they may be, or however bright, they are not availing until placed into the crucible of experience. Gold, silver, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds—all the precious jewels imbedded in the treasure-house of nature, become valuable to us only when we dig them out, polish and shape them for our use. Likewise our opportunities enrich us only as we reach out after them and make them an ...
— A Fleece of Gold - Five Lessons from the Fable of Jason and the Golden Fleece • Charles Stewart Given

... supplying heat and power is beginning to be distributed from great central stations, through mains laid underground, to all parts of the surrounding district. The necessity for frequent repairs and stoppage of leaks renders it necessary to break the pavement and dig down to the mains much oftener than is required for any other of our underground furniture. Nothing would seem more evident than that the number of these pipes to be laid should be the fewest consistent with the proper supply of the district, yet it is a fact that ...
— Monopolies and the People • Charles Whiting Baker

... fretful worrier. A man plants corn, wheat, barley, potatoes—or trees, that take five, seven years to come to bearing, such as the orange, olive, walnut, date, etc. Let him fret ever so much, worry all he likes, chafe and fret every hour; let him go and dig up his seeds or plants to urge their upgrowing; let him even swear in his impatient worry and threaten to smash all his machinery, discharge his men, and turn his stock loose; Nature goes on her way, quietly, unmoved, ...
— Quit Your Worrying! • George Wharton James

... to let my teams lay idle and buy guano?" By no means. But you can probably employ men and teams in other improvements to much better advantage. With your manure make all your home lots exceedingly rich. With your men and teams clear off stones, dig ditches to put them into, drain your land, or build fence—bring bog meadows and swamps into dry cultivation—send every little brook through artificial channels for irrigation—send water up from lowland springs and streams by hydraulic rams for ...
— Guano - A Treatise of Practical Information for Farmers • Solon Robinson

... of repairing roads, Al. They dig the dirt out of the gutters in the springtime and fill up the rut holes, and then the next spring do the same thing over again, from 'generation to generation,' as the good Book says. I'm satisfied myself," he continued, "that our county will never ...
— Hidden Treasure • John Thomas Simpson

... "Thought I'd dig a mess o' clams for supper," he explained casually, "an' seeing's I was passin', I dropped in. Some time since you an' me crossed the line on ...
— Cape Cod and All the Pilgrim Land, June 1922, Volume 6, Number 4 • Various

... curiosities, may be seen oaks, chestnuts, pines, and cedars growing in flowerpots, and fifty years old, but not twelve inches high! They take the young plant, cut off its tap-root, and place it in a basin of good soil kept well watered. Should it grow too rapidly, they dig down and shorten in several roots. Year by year the leaves grow smaller, and in course of time the trees become little dwarfs, and are made pets ...
— Little Folks (July 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... thinks of the sick woman at home and what that race will mean to her, and then his knees close against the horse's sides with a firmer dig. The spurs shoot deeper into the steaming flanks. Black Boy shall win; he must win. The horse that has taken away his father shall give him back his mother. The stallion leaps away like a flash, and goes under ...
— The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... MacAulay would say. It came, literally, out of the sea. Sometime, ages ago, it belonged to the bed of the ocean, and it never has reconciled itself to the life of the land; its Flora is different from that of the boundaries; if you dig a few feet into its marl, you find layers of shells belonging to deep soundings, sharks' teeth and bones, and the like. The people, too, have a 'marvellously ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 91, May, 1865 • Various

... old gentleman was infinitely amused, had fits of mingled coughing and laughter, but made little attempt at solving his pupil's difficulties, beyond ejaculating Er narrischer Kerl! Er narrischer Junge! He let him dig for solutions, however, in an English commentary on the shelves, and occupied the time with turning the familiar pages of his Lucian [Footnote: Wahrheit und Dichtung, book iv. ]. The wicked old rector perhaps chuckled to think that here was one who bade fair to love ...
— Works, V1 • Lucian of Samosata

... re-erected in the modern capital, it will endure when its glory too has passed away. And out of the ruins of the city of the Popes, as out of the ruins of the city of the Caesars, some future architect will dig it up to grace the triumph of a brighter and freer resuscitation of the Eternal City than the world has ...
— Roman Mosaics - Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood • Hugh Macmillan

... wrong. The right way is shown in Fig. 10a. The whole tooth is bent, showing the correct way of setting. The reasons for avoiding one way and following the other are: First, that if the point projects to one side, each point or tooth will dig into the wood, and produce tooth prints in the wood, which make a roughened surface. Second, that if there are inequalities in setting the teeth (as is sure to be the case when only the points are bent out), the most exposed points will first ...
— Carpentry for Boys • J. S. Zerbe

... in the proportion of one to two—two pints cordial to one of liquor. Let cool uncovered, bottle and cork tight—sealing is unnecessary. Excellent for convalescents, especially children. To make it almost a specific for bowel troubles, dig up, and wash clean, dewberry roots, cut short, and boil in clear water, making a very strong decoction. Add this to the cordial while still boiling, in proportion of one to four. Then mix in the spirits. A quart of cordial can ...
— Dishes & Beverages of the Old South • Martha McCulloch Williams

... right, I was wrong. It is good to be in England again. Your prophecy has come true. The dead past has pretty well buried its dead. A few dry bones show under the surface here and there. I let them lie. Is thy servant a dog, that he should dig up buried bones! ...
— Set in Silver • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson

... far" it was! Not a man hurt. Two of the sorrels had been hit by flying bullets and much amazed and stung thereat, but neither was crippled. Bidding their guards to dig for water that might soon be needed, Ray once more made his way to the northward side and ...
— A Daughter of the Sioux - A Tale of the Indian frontier • Charles King

... a log house for a settler to build in his first "cut down" in the virgin forest, was to dig a square trench about two feet deep, of dimensions as large as he wished the ground floor of his house, then to set upright all around this trench (leaving a space for a fireplace, window, and door), a closely placed ...
— Home Life in Colonial Days • Alice Morse Earle

... of the Enclosure period the Industrial Revolution was barely in its infancy. A large part of the spinning, weaving and other manufactures was carried on in the cottages of men who had gardens they could dig in and cows and pigs of their own. The invention of power machines, the discovery of coal wherewith those machines could be worked, led to the concentration of factories in the huge cities. But it was the drift from the villages of dispossessed men, ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Maisie Ward

... gold, the most desired of all treasure. To seek gold by war is wicked, by voyages dangerous, by swindling shameful; but to seek it from Nature in its own home is righteous. No one is hurt by this honest gain. Griffins are said to dig for gold and to delight in the contemplation of this metal; but no one blames them, because their proceedings are not dictated by criminal covetousness. For it is not the act itself, but the motive for the act, that gives it ...
— The Letters of Cassiodorus - Being A Condensed Translation Of The Variae Epistolae Of - Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator • Cassiodorus (AKA Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator)

... not quite certain about that; but I think he said it was infra dig. for the Steinheimers to call in the police. Anyhow, it was an excuse which did not satisfy the Princess; but as guests were arriving, and as it was desirable that there should be no commotion to mar the occasion, the Princess temporarily yielded to the wish of her ...
— Jennie Baxter, Journalist • Robert Barr

... for your old chair?" was the reply in a scornful tone, as she gave another and harder dig with her nail. "You're a little old maid—so particular with all your things— that's what mamma says you are. Now tell me ...
— Elsie Dinsmore • Martha Finley

... beginning of things yet," he interrupted, following up the line of thought the Maluka had at first suggested. "Before any trees are cut down, we'll have to dig a saw-pit and find a pit-sawyer." Dan was not a pessimist; he only liked to dig down to the very root of things, besides objecting to sugar-coated pills as being a ...
— We of the Never-Never • Jeanie "Mrs. Aeneas" Gunn

... I overheard certain girls planning to go out to the Omnibus House after school to-morrow and dig up the poor hatchet and flaunt it in the seniors' faces the day of the opening basketball game, simply to rattle us. Just as though it wouldn't upset your team as much as ours. It's an idiotic trick, at any rate, and anything but funny. Now I propose to take four of ...
— Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School - Or, Fast Friends in the Sororities • Jessie Graham Flower

... me? Behold, I am indeed a most wretched man. Punish me not according to my abominable deeds, weigh them not in a balance as against weights; thy punishment of me is already threefold. Leave the seed, and thou shalt find it again in due season. Dig not up the young root which is about to put forth shoots. Thy Ka and the terror of thee are in my body, and the fear of thee is in my bones. I have not sat in the house of drinking beer, and no one hath brought to me the harp. I have only eaten the bread ...
— The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians • E. A. Wallis Budge

... dull throbbing sound—and a strain of music—is it the young wife who, all unknowing, is digging her husband's grave? How sad she is! She pities the poor prisoner, whoever he may be. She would not dig this grave if she knew: she calls herself Fidelio; she is faithful to her love. But now—but now—though this hole is black as night, and silent, and the waters are lapping outside, cannot one know what is passing there? There are some who are born to be happy. Ah, look at the faithful ...
— Sunrise • William Black

... are suffering great privations for lack of clothing. The people are very poor. There are few islands where, as it is reported, gold does not exist—but in so small quantities that quite commonly [as I think I have said] a native can be hired to dig, or to work as he is commanded, for three reals a month. A slave can be bought for fifty reals, or sometimes for a little more. It is therefore evident that it is not possible to save from the mines ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 - Volume III, 1569-1576 • E.H. Blair

... a wonder when a parrot, standing on one foot, takes its meals with the other. It is a wonder, and stamps the parrot as a bird of talent. A mine of hidden possibilities is in us all, but those who dig resolutely into it and bring out treasure ...
— Concerning Animals and Other Matters • E.H. Aitken, (AKA Edward Hamilton)

... is the wind of enterprise, And blows its banners out. But here they come Who dig beneath their rashness for ...
— Tecumseh: A Drama • Charles Mair

... "Yes fine range," he presently replied, his gaze fixed on Dene. "Fine water, fine cattle, fine browse. I've a fine graveyard, too; thirty graves, and not one a woman's. Fine place for graves, the canyon country. You don't have to dig. There's one grave the Indians never named; it's three ...
— The Heritage of the Desert • Zane Grey

... if I could spare him a root of it. I told him I could spare him any thing he would like to have, but that I would gladly give him every flower in my garden, roots and all, if he would but let me dig three yards square in his garden at the Old House, and have all that came up of itself for ...
— Paul Faber, Surgeon • George MacDonald



Words linked to "Dig" :   jab, unearth, archeological site, drive, spade, land site, withdraw, do work, shovel, work, site, ding, gibe, get it, rut, understand, Byblos, catch on, dent, creating by removal, tumble, touching, ditch, latch on, core out, rout, remove, digging, figure, dibble, nick, get wise, prod, get onto, twig, root, fag, groove, hollow out, touch, tunnel, comment, take, rootle, lift, intuit, trowel, furrow, hollow, archeology, gouge, remark, cotton on, thrust, take away, input, burrow, cheap shot, archaeology, trench



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