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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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

In May and June Iran was accused of planting mines on several commercial ships in the Persian Gulf. — The Economist, "America claims to have downed an Iranian drone," 19 July 2019 Here are a few tips of mine for choosing the right luggage to meet your travel needs: Buy a color that is anything other than black. — Shannah Compton Game, Outside Online, "The 5 Travel Items That Are Worth Splurging On," 20 June 2019 The problem the poor face is not long hours at the salt mine but unemployment. — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, "The Democrats Are the Socialist Party Again," 20 June 2019 This wouldn’t be the first time Iran used the mines to attack oil tankers. — Fox News, "Limpet mine used in oil tanker attacks 'bears striking resemblance' to similar Iranian Mines, US Navy says," 19 June 2019 Veronica finds evidence of this in video footage, so afraid that there's too many loose variables, Hiram orders Sheriff Minetta to head to the mines to shoot and kill all the Shadow Lake boys. — Jasmine Gomez, Seventeen, "Every "Riverdale" Character That's Been Killed Off," 10 May 2019 The board also voted unanimously to close the Bull Run coal plant in Tennessee, which got its fuel from 12 mines in 2017, according to the Energy Information Administration. — Jim Efstathiou Jr, Bloomberg.com, "Trump's Love for Coal Not Enough to Save Money-Losing Plant," 14 Feb. 2019 In March of this year, the country's Communities Secretary rejected an open-pit coal mine on climate change concerns. — Megan Geuss, Ars Technica, "Natural gas firms have a proposal to convert home heating to hydrogen," 25 Nov. 2018 So the deepest mines are much deeper than the tallest buildings. — Eric Johnson, Recode, "Full Q&A: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Recode Decode," 2 Nov. 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

In terms of mining the 20th Century Fox library for streaming purposes, Iger said Tuesday that Watts and her team will be rebooting Night at the Museum, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Home Alone and Cheaper by the Dozen for Disney+. — Pamela Mcclintock, The Hollywood Reporter, "Disney Sets Course for Pared-Down 20th Century Fox Amid $170M Loss," 7 Aug. 2019 Peter designed, on his own, a windowless, whitewashed church that rose near the shores of Searles Lake, the dry expanse from where Trona mined borax, ash and other minerals. — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, "Trona Catholics kept the faith as their town declined. Then, two earthquakes shook their ‘gem in the desert’," 5 Aug. 2019 To replace spirituals with Irish folk tunes might seem to be just as restrictive, but Beach mined them for a more complicated expression of transnational identities. — Matthew Guerrieri, BostonGlobe.com, "Irish themes, reimagined in music," 1 Aug. 2019 But as ice and snow recede, China is investing in mining there. — Mark Fischetti, Scientific American, "Nations Claim Large Overlapping Sections of Arctic Seafloor," 23 July 2019 NBC NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images The 2020 presidential election is still 495 days away, but networks are already mining it for ratings. — Gerry Smith, Fortune, "First Democratic Debate Was Most-Watched TV Program Last Night," 27 June 2019 The currency runs on a permissioned blockchain, which means that only companies in the Libra Association can mine it. — Russell Brandom, The Verge, "Facebook’s cryptocurrency has a trust problem," 18 June 2019 And if the Chinese government disrupts rare earth trade or if demand increases in the future, that same facility can mine ore at a faster rate to fill the needs of American consumers. — Eugene Gholz For Cnn Business Perspectives, CNN, "The rare earths industry can weather any Chinese trade battle," 23 July 2019 Back to the Moon Helps: Our lunar base might be the proving ground for technologies that’ll produce propellant fuel from water ice mined beneath the surface of the moon, if, of course, the same technology can be adapted for Mars. — Anatoly Zak, Popular Mechanics, "6 Challenges We Need To Conquer on Our Way to Mars," 22 July 2019

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.