mine

adjective

\ ˈmīn

Definition of mine

(Entry 1 of 4)

: my —used before a word beginning with a vowel or h this treasure in mine arms —William Shakespeare or sometimes as a modifier of a preceding noun —archaic except in an elevated style

mine

pronoun, singular or plural in construction

Definition of mine (Entry 2 of 4)

: that which belongs to me —used without a following noun as a pronoun equivalent in meaning to the adjective my Your eyes are brown and mine are green.

mine

noun

Definition of mine (Entry 3 of 4)

1a : a pit or excavation in the earth from which mineral substances are taken

b : an ore deposit

2 : a subterranean passage under an enemy position

3 : an encased explosive that is placed in the ground or in water and set to explode when disturbed

4 : a rich source of supply

mine

verb

mined; mining

Definition of mine (Entry 4 of 4)

transitive verb

1a : to dig under to gain access or cause the collapse of (an enemy position)

b : undermine

2a : to get (something, such as ore) from the earth

b : to extract from a source information mined from the files

3 : to burrow beneath the surface of larva that mines leaves

4 : to place military mines in, on, or under mine a harbor

5a : to dig into for ore or metal

b : to process for obtaining a natural constituent mine the air for nitrogen

c : to seek valuable material in mine old records for more details

6 : to create or obtain more units of (a cryptocurrency) through a cryptographic process But bitcoins also need to be generated in the first place. Bitcoins are "mined" when you set your Bitcoin client to a mode that has it compete to update the public log of transactions. All the clients set to this mode race to solve a cryptographic puzzle by completing the next "block" of the shared transaction log. Winning the race to complete the next block wins you a 50-Bitcoin prize. —Tom Simonite

intransitive verb

: to dig a mine

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Synonyms for mine

Synonyms: Noun

booby trap

Synonyms: Verb

booby-trap

Examples of mine in a Sentence

Noun

a baseball fanatic who is a mine of fascinating trivia about the game the soldiers were careful to disarm any mines they found in their path

Verb

The area was soon filled with prospectors who were mining for gold. Prospectors mined the region for diamonds. Local people were hired to mine the gold. The enemy had mined the harbor.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Another brother, Bill Koch, owns the last operating coal mine in Paonia. — Zack Colman, Scientific American, "A Trump Oil Boom Could Transform This Rocky Mountain Landscape," 13 July 2018 Manchin said in the spot, which invoked a mine explosion in his hometown that killed 78 people in 1968, including his uncle. — USA TODAY, "'Pivot counties' will be key in fight for Senate control," 10 July 2018 Jindal Mining SA’s main business is coal production at the Kiepersol mine, according to one of the documents. — Paul Burkhardt, Bloomberg.com, "Jindal Steel South Africa Units File for Business Protection," 26 June 2018 Tuleyev is political survivor, even managing to keep his post after the Raspadskaya coal mine explosion in 2010 that killed 66 workers. — Houston Chronicle, "Cleveland native supports ‘Silent Service’," 25 May 2018 The retired businessman was released less than a year ago from a prison term for a 2010 mine explosion that left 29 men dead. — Steve Peoples And John Raby, BostonGlobe.com, "GOP voters in West Virginia reject ex-convict for Senate," 9 May 2018 Blankenship was already a controversial candidate after spending a year in prison for his role in a deadly West Virginia mine explosion. — Kyle Swenson, chicagotribune.com, "'Cocaine Mitch' McConnell's team taunts Blankenship after West Virginia primary loss," 9 May 2018 American Rivers recently named the South Fork of the Salmon River one of the nation’s most endangered rivers, pointing to the threat from the mine. — Rocky Barker, idahostatesman, "World's largest gold miner puts $38 million bet on new Idaho project | Idaho Statesman," 9 May 2018 Blankenship does push back on his role in the Upper Big Branch mine disaster. — Christa Case Bryant, The Christian Science Monitor, "In West Virginia, GOP tries to tame forces of 'Trumpism'," 7 May 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

Both Apple and Google have started to ban applications that mine virtual currencies on their devices. — Robert Stevens, chicagotribune.com, "How your smart fridge and TV might be mining bitcoin for criminals," 4 July 2018 The record is a victory lap from a couple who have mined their relationship for universal truths and then presented them as art. — Anchorage Daily News, "A guide to Beyonce and Jay-Z’s surprise joint album ‘Everything is Love’," 18 June 2018 The botnet also installed cryptocurrency miners that mined the monero, bytecoin, and electroneum digital coins. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "Malicious Chrome extensions infect 100,000-plus users, again," 10 May 2018 More recently, Apple removed the Calendar 2 app in the Mac App Store that mined Monero for putting strain on users’ computers. — Shannon Liao, The Verge, "Cryptojacking rates increased by 85 times in Q4 2017 as bitcoin prices spiked: report," 22 Mar. 2018 Donken is just one of hundreds of ghost towns in Michigan: localities that died when the jobs dried up after the trees were all cut down or the copper was all mined and everyone moved away. — John Carlisle, Detroit Free Press, "For some in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a ghost town is home," 16 Feb. 2018 Another position Texas replenished by mining the abundance of talent within state lines is wide receiver. — Chris Johnson, SI.com, "Texas Built a Top-Five Recruiting Class by Dominating Texas," 5 Feb. 2018 The Nigeria jerseys seem to tap into what designers already knew: soccer is fashion, or at least a sport worthy of being mined for fashion inspiration and turned into luxury soccer scarfs or streetwear-adjacent jerseys. — Cam Wolf, GQ, "How Nigeria's World Cup Jersey Became a Streetwear Grail," 6 June 2018 After mining ceases in the mid 2020s, the pit will become a recreational lake, and 35 square kilometers, or 13.5 square miles, will have been replanted with shoots, sprouts, and seeds sourced from the original Hambach stand. — National Geographic, "Ancient Forest Home of Squatter Communities Is Doomed by Coal," 13 Apr. 2018

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