“caves” is a form of
cave
/keɪv/ noun, verb, interjection, proper noun
Forms caves caving caved
- noun A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside. “We found a cave on the mountainside where we could take shelter.”
- noun A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.
- noun A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese. “This wine has been aged in our cave for thirty years.”
- noun A place of retreat, such as a man cave. “My room was a cozy cave where I could escape from my family.”
- noun (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.”
- noun (nuclear physics) A shielded area where nuclear experiments can be carried out.
- noun (drilling, uncountable) Debris, particularly broken rock, which falls into a drill hole and interferes with drilling.
- noun (mining) A collapse or cave-in.
- verb (figurative) To surrender. “He caved under pressure.”
- verb To collapse. “First the braces buckled, then the roof began to cave, then we ran.”
- verb To hollow out or undermine. “The levee has been severely caved by the river current.”
- verb To engage in the recreational exploration of caves.
- verb (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.”
- verb (mining, obsolete) To work over tailings to dress small pieces of marketable ore.
- verb (obsolete) To dwell in a cave.
- interjection (UK, school slang) look out!; beware!
- proper noun The 18th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun A town and comune in Lazio, Italy.
- proper noun A township in Franklin County, Illinois, United States.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English cave, borrowed from Old French cave, from Latin cava (“cavity”), from cavus (“hollow”). Cognate with Tocharian B kor (“throat”), Albanian cup (“odd, uneven”), Ancient Greek κύαρ (kúar, “eye of needle, earhole”), Old Armenian սոր (sor, “hole”), Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “empty, barren, zero”). Displaced native Old English sċræf. More at cavum, cavus and cage.
Learned borrowing from Latin cavē, second-person singular present active imperative of caveō (“to beware”). Used at Eton College, Berkshire.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A hollow place in the earth, either natural or artificial; a subterraneous cavity; a cavern; a den.
- noun Any hollow place, or part; a cavity. [Obs.] "The cave of the ear." Bacon. Cave bear (Zoöl.), a very large fossil bear (Ursus spelæus) similar to the grizzly bear, but large; common in European caves.
- verb To make hollow; to scoop out. [Obs.]
- verb To dwell in a cave. [Obs.] Shak.
Etymology [F. cave, L. cavus hollow, whence cavea cavity. Cf. Cage.]
Etymology [Cf. F. caver. See Cave, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cave”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details