Ex"ca*vate (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Excavated(?); p. pr. & vb. n. Excavating(?).] [L. excavatus, p. p. of excavare to excavate; ex out + cavare to make hollow, cavus hollow. See Cave.] 1. To hollow out; to form cavity or hole in; to make hollow by cutting, scooping, or digging; as, to excavate a ball; to excavate the earth.
2. To form by hollowing; to shape, as a cavity, or anything that is hollow; as, to excavate a canoe, a cellar, a channel.
3. Engin. To dig out and remove, as earth.
The material excavated was usually sand.
E. L. Corthell.
Excavating pump, a kind of dredging apparatus for excavating under water, in which silt and loose material mixed with water are drawn up by a pump.
Knight.
© Webster 1913. | 
