See Also: delve(medicine)
delve(1)(dictionary)
delve(2)(dictionary)
delve(dictionary)

delve(2) (iou)



delve verb.
[Old English delfan = Old Frisian delva, Old Saxon bi-delban (Dutch delven), Old High German bi-telban, from West Germanic.]
I. verb trans.
Dig, turn up with a spade; make by digging, excavate; burrow. Now literary exc. Scot. & north. OE.
Tolkien Dwarves..had delved for themselves great halls and mansions..in the..Ered Luin. fig.: Shakespeare Sonnets Time..delves the parallels in beauty's brow.
Dig up or out, exhume. Also, put in by digging, bury. Now arch. & dial. OE.
N. Hawthorne Minerals, delved..out of the hearts of the mountains.
a. Penetrate (as) by digging. Only in ME.
b. Dent, indent. dial. L18.
II. verb intrans.
Labour with a spade, dig. Now literary exc. Scot. & north. OE.
Proverb: When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?
b. transf. Reach, dig with the hand, in or into a container etc. M20.
A. Price Stocker delved into his brief-case. 'There's another cutting here.'
fig. Search, esp. painstakingly; research in documents etc.; investigate, make enquiry. (Foll. by in, into.) LME.
G. Saintsbury He never delves beneath the surface for hidden wealth of suggestion.
Work hard, slave. dial. & slang. M19.
L. M. Alcott Delve like slaves.
Of a slope, road, etc.: make a sudden dip or descent. M19.
delver noun a person who delves OE.