crate-dig

verb

variants or crate dig
crate-dug ˈkrāt-ˌdəg How to pronounce crate-dig (audio) or crate dug; crate-digging or crate digging; crate-digs or crate digs

transitive + intransitive

: to shop for rare, vintage, or obscure recordings especially by searching through crates of secondhand merchandise
He spent his teenage years crate-digging for classic disco, funk and soul vinyl in charity shops …Paul Lester
… they were able to crate-dig for rare 7" records from the 60s and 70s …Cathy Peters and Moses Iten
If you think crate-digging for records is hard, try old VHS tapes and DVDs.M. Night (Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan), quoted in The Dallas Morning News
"I stumbled on the original sample while crate digging one day, took it straight to the lab and added drums. …"Posdnuos, quoted in Rolling Stone
… their bins are always full of both legendary albums and some of the best, obscure records of all time. Be ready to spend hours here as you crate dig to find your next grail.Andrew DaRosa
This highly enjoyable compilation collects mostly obscure tracks from Stax, the illustrious Memphis soul label, that were crate dug and sampled by hip-hop stars.Larry Katz
crate dig noun
or crate-dig
plural crate digs or crate-digs
I struggle to pass a record store, no matter how busy I am, without going in for a crate dig. Amanda Marcotte
crate-digger noun
or crate digger or less commonly cratedigger
plural crate-diggers or crate diggers also cratediggers
… Bogotá is a (vinyl) music lover's paradise. Crate-diggers can find mint-condition classics and rarities … Monika Fabian

Examples of crate-dig in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But there’s no debating the fact that the Democrats are fiercely ahead in an equally important battle: the crate-digging wars. David Browne, Rolling Stone, 11 Sep. 2024 There’s definitely a nonzero chance that samples from this record might be found in ’90s releases from DJ Shadow and his fellow crate-digging beat miners. Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 6 Nov. 2023 Earlier this year, German crate-digging label Analog Africa released a retrospective of Mayorga’s more exploratory electronic works, while a new album of original compositions titled Cumbia Pishcodélica is slated for release in the coming months via Musicoteca Ecuador. Richard Villegas, Rolling Stone, 2 Oct. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'crate-dig.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

2005, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of crate-dig was in 2005

Dictionary Entries Near crate-dig

Cite this Entry

“Crate-dig.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crate-dig. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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