• Cave

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: kāv, IPA: /keɪv/
    • Rhymes: -eɪv

    Origin 1

    Middle English, from Anglo-Norman cave, from Latin cava ("cavity"), from cavus ("hollow"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱówHwos ("cavity") (compare Irish cúas ("hollow, cavity"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱówH- (compare Tocharian B throat (kor), Albanian cup ("odd, uneven"), Ancient Greek κύαρ (kýar, "eye of needle, earhole"), Old Armenian սոր (sor, "hole"), Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, "empty, barren, zero")).

    Full definition of cave

    Noun

    cave

    (plural caves)
    1. A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground, or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 16, The preposterous altruism too!...Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
    2. We found a cave on the mountainside where we could take shelter.
    3. A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.
      • Every boy at one time or another has dug a cave; I suppose because ages and ages ago his ancestors had to live in caves, ...
    4. A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.
      This wine has been aged in our cave for thirty years.
    5. A place of retreat, such as a man cave.
      My room was a cozy cave where I could escape from my family.
    6. (caving) A naturally-occurring cavity in bedrock which is large enough to be entered by an adult.
      It was not strictly a cave, but a narrow fissure in the rock.
    7. (nuclear physics) A shielded area where nuclear experiments can be carried out.
      • These potential radiation fields or radioactive material levels may be the result of normal operations (ie, radiation in a target cave) ...
    8. (drilling, uncountable) Debris, particularly broken rock, which falls into a drill hole and interferes with drilling.
      • ... the casing can then be placed in the hole without encountering any cave and core drilling in rock can begin.
    9. (mining) A collapse or cave-in.
      • The "breasts" of marble which unite the opposite lateral walls have been left standing in order to prevent a possible cave of the wall on either side.
    10. (figuratively, also slang) The vagina.
      • Then without a word she lay on her back in the bed, her dark blond pubic hair rising about her dark wet cave like dried brush about a hidden spring.
    11. (slang, politics, often "Cave") A group that breaks from a larger political party or faction on a particular issue.
      • Without joining the cave, Hyde had abstained both in December 1956 and May 1957.
    12. (obsolete) Any hollow place, or part; a cavity.
      • Francis Baconthe cave of the ear

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    Verb

    1. To surrender.He caved under pressure.
    2. To collapse.First the braces buckled, then the roof began to cave, then we ran.
    3. To hollow out or undermine.The levee has been severely caved by the river current.
    4. To engage in the recreational exploration of caves; to spelunk.I have caved from Yugoslavia to Kentucky.Let's go caving this weekend.
    5. (mining) In room-and-pillar mining, to extract a deposit of rock by breaking down a pillar which had been holding it in place.The deposit is caved by knocking out the posts.
    6. (mining, obsolete) To work over tailings to dress small pieces of marketable ore.
      • As an indication of the miners' desperation in these years, the free miners of Wensley lowered themselves to caving for scraps of ore.
    7. (obsolete) To dwell in a cave.

    Derived terms

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: kāʹvÄ“, IPA: /ˈkeɪvi/
      • Rhymes: -eɪvi
    • Homophones: cavy

    Origin 2

    From Latin cavē, second-person singular present active imperative of caveō ("to beware").

    Interjection

    1. (British, public school slang) look out!; beware!

    Anagrams

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