excavate

verb ex·ca·vate \ ˈek-skə-ˌvāt \

Updated on: 18 May 2018

Definition of excavate

excavated; excavating

transitive verb

1 : to form a cavity or hole in

2 : to form by hollowing out

3 : to dig out and remove

4 : to expose to view by or as if by digging away a covering

excavate the remains of a temple

intransitive verb

: to make excavations

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Examples of excavate in a Sentence

They excavated an ancient city.
It is the first site to be excavated in this area.
They began excavating the backyard for their new pool.
The excess dirt was carefully excavated.

Recent Examples of excavate from the Web

Live Archaeology Dig Presidio archaeologists are working on a long-term research project to excavate El Presidio de San Francisco, the Spanish-colonial site buried just below the ground in front of the Presidio Officers’ Club.

— chronicle staff report, San Francisco Chronicle, "Kids listings," 10 May 2018
On Monday, police began excavating a wooded area in Macomb Township, about 30 miles from downtown Detroit, for the remains of 12-year-old Kimberly King, who was last seen alive in 1979, the Detroit Free Press reports.

— harriet sokmensuer, PEOPLE.com, "Were 7 Missing Girls Buried in a Remote Area of the Michigan Woods?," 8 May 2018
Researchers excavated two of the 53 houses completely and 50% of a third home and conducted a small investigation into six of the homes.

— ashley strickland, CNN, "Skeletons tell story of 'truly horrifying' fifth-century massacre," 1 May 2018
An archaeologist and Huanchaco native, Prieto was excavating a 3,500-year-old temple down the road from the sacrifice site when local residents first alerted him to human remains eroding from nearby coastal dunes.

— National Geographic, "Exclusive: Ancient Mass Child Sacrifice May Be World's Largest," 26 Apr. 2018
On a brisk, sunny April day, near the sparkling James River, historians were excavating beneath the 1907-built, brick Memorial Church, searching for remnants of the church where Virginia's first General Assembly convened in 1619.

— laura johnston, cleveland.com, "Archaeology is changing history at Jamestown, first permanent English settlement in North America," 18 Apr. 2018
The town's contractor, Paramount Construction, has already excavated a significant amount of soil to form the new off ramp.

— Courant Community, "Community News For The West Hartford Edition," 1 May 2018
Haagen Klaus, a professor of anthropology at George Mason University, has excavated some of the earliest evidence for child sacrifice in the region, at the 10th- to 12th-century site of Cerro Cerillos in the Lambayeque Valley, north of Huanchaco.

— National Geographic, "Exclusive: Ancient Mass Child Sacrifice May Be World's Largest," 26 Apr. 2018
The, jar, dating to 5500-5000 BCE, was excavated by Penn archaeologists working in Hajji Firuz in the 1960s.

— stephan salisbury, Philly.com, "Penn Museum's Middle East Galleries reopen: Behold, the queen's beer straw," 19 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'excavate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.