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A cavity formed by cutting, digging, or scooping. "A winding excavation." Glover.

A deposit of ore or coal, worked by excavations above water level.

vity. An instrument with a small cavity, like a small spoon. Arbuthot. Abnormal spaces or excavations are frequently formed in the lungs, which are designated cavities or vomicæ. Quain. Body cavity, the coelum. See under Body.

A cellar or excavation used for refuge from a cyclone, or tornado. [Middle U. S.]

The laying bare of rocks by the washing away of the overlying earth, etc.; or the excavation and removal of them by the action of running water.

To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.

The operation connected with excavations and embankments of earth in preparing foundations of buildings, in constructing canals, railroads, etc.

The end or wall of the tunnel, drift, or excavation, at which work is progressing or was last done.

(Mining), the process of softening or cracking the working face of a lode, to facilitate excavation, by exposing it to the action of fire; -- now generally superseded by the use of explosives. Raymond. -- Fire ship, a vessel filled with combustibles, for setting fire to an enemy's ships. -- Fire shovel, a shovel for…

The refuse thrown back into the excavation after removing the coal. It is called also gob stuff. Brande & C.

An excavation in the earth as a place of burial; also, any place of interment; a tomb; a sepulcher. Hence: Death; destruction. He bad lain in the grave four days. John xi. 17. Grave wax, adipocere.

A shaft or excavation. [Prov. Eng.]

A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; an opening in or through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent; a fissure. The holes where eyes should be. Shak. The blind walls Were full of chinks and holes. Tennyson. The priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid. 2 Kings xii. 9.…

A cavity, natural or artificial; an unfilled space within anything; a hole, a cavern; an excavation; as the hollow of the hand or of a tree.

A cavity, or excavation, made in the snow by a seal, over its breathing hole in the ice.

An excavation in rock, transverse to the workings, from which material for filling is obtained.

A pit or excavation in the earth, from which metallic ores, precious stones, coal, or other mineral substances are taken by digging; -- distinguished from the pits from which stones for architectural purposes are taken, and which are called quarries.

A depression or thin spot in the wall of a duct. Cold pit (Hort.), an excavation in the earth, lined with masonry or boards, and covered with glass, but not artificially heated, -- used in winter for the storing and protection of half-hardly plants, and sometimes in the spring as a forcing bed. -- Pit coal, coal dug f…

y of Italy, buried by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 a. d., and partly uncovered by modern excavations.

A pit or excavation from which sand is or has been taken.