mine

1 of 4

adjective

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

mine

2 of 4

pronoun

singular or plural in construction
: 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

3 of 4

noun

1
a
: 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

4 of 4

verb

mined; mining

transitive verb

1
a
: to dig under to gain access or cause the collapse of (an enemy position)
b
2
a
: 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
5
a
: 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
miner noun

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
Tester has been scrambling to contain the fallout from layoffs announced in September of about 700 workers at a palladium and platinum mine. Daniel Moore, Axios, 24 Oct. 2024 Canaries were used in the U.K.’s coal mines to detect toxic air until the 1980s. Ludmila Praslova, Forbes, 24 Oct. 2024 Hunt and her wife — the daughter of a tungsten mine worker who grew up in Bishop — moved here from Washington, D.C., in 2014 to be near family. Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2024 Such nodules were first spotted at a coal mine in Montceau-les-Mines, France, in the 1970s and then were transferred to French museum collections. Ashley Strickland, CNN, 18 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for mine 

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

Word History

Etymology

Adjective and Pronoun

Middle English min, from Old English mīn — more at my

Noun

Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Vulgar Latin *mina, probably of Celtic origin; akin to Welsh mwyn ore

First Known Use

Adjective

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Pronoun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of mine was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near mine

Cite this Entry

“Mine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mine. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

mine

1 of 4 adjective
archaic
: my
used before a word beginning with a vowel or h or after a noun

mine

2 of 4 pronoun
ˈmīn
: my one : my ones

mine

3 of 4 noun
ˈmīn
1
: a pit or tunnel from which minerals (as coal, gold, or diamonds) are taken
2
: a deposit of ore
3
: an underground passage dug beneath an enemy position
4
: an explosive device placed in the ground or water and set to explode when disturbed
5
: a rich source
a mine of information

mine

4 of 4 verb
ˈmīn
mined; mining
1
: to dig or form mines under a place
2
: to obtain from a mine
mine coal
3
: to lay military mines in or under
mine a harbor
4
: to work in a mine
miner noun
Etymology

Adjective

Middle English min "my," from Old English mīn

Noun

Middle English mine "a pit or tunnel for digging out coal, gold, or diamonds," from early French mine (same meaning)

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