From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishexcavateex‧ca‧vate /ˈekskəveɪt/ verb [intransitive, transitive] 1 SXif a scientist or archaeologist excavates an area of land, they dig carefully to find ancient objects, bones etc Schliemann excavated the ancient city of Troy.► see thesaurus at dig2 formalDIG to make a hole in the ground by digging up soil etc —excavation /ˌekskəˈveɪʃən/ noun [countable, uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
excavate• The site, needed for a parking lot, was entombed without being excavated.• Archaeologists are excavating a Bronze Age settlement on the outskirts of the village.• The turtle excavates a hole in the sand and then lays its eggs in it.• The stone-lined privy pit was excavated a year ago by an archaeology field class from City College.• As on land, ocean impact explosions excavate huge craters.• The mosaics excavated in 1989 have now been fully restored.• For a time he worked with archaeologists from the University of California excavating ruins near Kayenta, Arizona.• Work is under way to excavate the ancient city.• Workers had already begun excavating the foundations for the house.• A very large amount of gravel would be excavated to form the channel.• Until recently new pits were continually being excavated while others are being filled with refuse.Origin excavate (1500-1600) Latin past participle of excavare, from cavus “hollow” 