Search the Dictionary

To dig; to open (the ground) as with a spade. Delve of convenient depth your thrashing flooDryden.

One who digs, as with a spade.

To delve under. [Obs.]

imp. of Delve. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A mine; a quarry; a pit dug; a ditch. [Written also delft, and delve.] [Obs.] The delfts would be so flown with waters, that no gins or machines could . . . keep them dry. Ray.

To turn up, or delve in, (earth) with a spade or a hoe; to open, loosen, or break up (the soil) with a spade, or other sharp instrument; to pierce, open, or loosen, as if with a spade. Be first to dig the ground. Dryden.

To work as a ditcher; to dig. [Obs.] He would thresh and thereto dike and delve. Chaucer.

To strike; to thump; to pound. [Obs.] Diken, or delven, or dingen upon sheaves. Piers Plowman.

of Delve. [Obs.] Chaucer.

of Delve. [Obs.] Rom. of R.

ot (Fulica Americana). (b) The clapper rail. -- Mud lark, a person who cleans sewers, or delves in mud. [Slang] - - Mud minnow (Zoöl.), any small American fresh-water fish of the genus Umbra, as U. limi. The genus is allied to the pickerels. -- Mud plug, a plug for stopping the mudhole of a boiler. -- Mud puppy (Zoö…

Same as Thrash. He would thresh, and thereto dike and delve. Chaucer.

p. p. of Underdelve.