delve

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to examine or investigate a subject carefully and in detail

   The historian continued to delve into letters that had been overlooked for decades.

2. 2
   verb

   to dig into or excavate the ground, especially with a spade

   The workers had to delve through compacted earth before laying the pipe.

From Middle English delven and Old English delfan, 'to dig,' from a Germanic base also represented by Dutch delven. The literal sense survives, while the now-common figurative use extends digging to careful research or examination.

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