# delve
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /dɛlv/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛlv

### Etymology 1

From Middle English delven, from Old English delfan (“to dig, dig out, burrow, bury”), from Proto-Germanic *delbaną (“to dig”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰelbʰ- (“to dig”). Cognate with West Frisian dolle (“to dig, delve”), Dutch delven (“to dig, delve”), Low German dölven (“to dig, delve”), dialectal German delben, telben (“to dig, delve”).

#### Verb

delve (third-person singular simple present delves, present participle delving, simple past delved or (obsolete) dolve, past participle delved or (archaic) dolven)
* (intransitive) To dig into the ground, especially with a shovel.
** 1697, Virgil, “Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:Delve of convenient depth your thrashing floor.
** 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my might - it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands; the wood commenced cracking about the screws; I was on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and bending down.
** 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 209:With a grunt that rejected a disgraceful admission of poverty, Bradly delved up a shilling and a sixpence and showed them to her. "That's all I got left," he said, and tossed the coins dyspeptically away.
* (transitive, intransitive) To search thoroughly and carefully for information, research, dig into, penetrate, fathom, trace out
** 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):I cannot delve him to the root.
** 1943, Emile C. Tepperman, Calling Justice, Inc.!:She was intensely eager to delve into the mystery of Mr. Joplin and his brief case.
** 1988 June, “Underground”, in Spin, page 32:Hampton delves into all sortsa cultural rootage — from country blues to smarmy Broadway show-tunage, combining them in a friendly, swinging way. This is the sorta record that should appeal to anybody who gave up on Zappa after Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
* (transitive, intransitive) To dig; to excavate.
** 1483, Jacobus de Voragine, translated by William Caxton, The Golden Legend:And then they made an oratory behind the altar, and would have dolven for to have laid the body in that oratory […]
** 1865, Sebastian Evans, Brother Fabian's Manuscript: And Other Poems, page 59:They dolve a grave beneath the arrow And covered it with brere.
** 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter IV, in The White Company:Let him take off his plates and delve himself, if delving must be done.

##### Synonyms

* (to dig the ground): dig
* (to search thoroughly): investigate, research

##### Derived terms

* delver
* indelve
* undelve
* undelved

##### Related terms

* dolven

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From Middle English delve, delf, dælf, from Old English delf, ġedelf (“digging”) and dælf (“that which is dug out, delf, ditch”). More at delf.

#### Noun

delve (plural delves)
* (now rare) A pit or den.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:the wise Merlin whylome wont (they say) / To make his wonne, low vnderneath the ground, / In a deepe delue, farre from the vew of day [...].
** 1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage, published 2015, page 75:I put the clods on top the delve and gave it all a good thumping down with my feet.

##### Related terms

* stonedelf

### Anagrams

* devel

## Dutch
### Verb

delve
* (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of delven

### Anagrams

* velde

## Middle English
### Etymology 1

From Old English delfan.

#### Verb

delve
* Alternative form of delven

### Etymology 2

From Old English delf.

#### Noun

delve
* Alternative form of delf