cave dweller

noun

1
: one (such as a prehistoric human) that dwells in a cave
2
: one that lives in a city apartment building

Examples of cave dweller in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web From the day the first primitive human clambered up a tree while fleeing a pack of ravenous wolves — and later grunted out the details of their narrow escape to cave dwellers around a campfire — the human brain appears to have been hard-wired to process and retain stories. Mary Carole McCauley, Baltimore Sun, 8 July 2024 But ancient cave dwellers weren’t sitting around the fire quaffing crisp lagers and hazy IPAs. Leslie Shapiro, Washington Post, 19 Sep. 2023 But by dragging their fingers across the rock and pushing them into the cave wall, these creative cave dwellers deliberately produced enduring lines and dots that would lie hidden beneath the French countryside for tens of thousands of years. Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 June 2023 Suddenly this obscure, blind cave dweller has become extremely interesting. Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 10 Feb. 2010 Even for a prehistoric cave dweller, the tablet could prove potently absorbing. Françoise Mouly, The New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2022 Rather his vain, bombshell wife Chrystal (Abbey Lee) is the one to watch, the physical wear and tear of aging propelling her to a vicious mental breakdown, devolving to a kind of monstrous cave dweller. Robert Daniels, Vulture, 24 July 2021 The discovery earns the bugs the unique honor of being the only cave dwellers ever described from the Cretaceous, the period spanning 66 to 145 million years ago and the final era of the non-avian dinosaurs. Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Feb. 2020 Through eons of incremental innovation, a cave dweller’s sketching stick evolved into the No. Robert Lee Hotz, WSJ, 12 Sep. 2018

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cave dweller.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1865, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of cave dweller was in 1865

Dictionary Entries Near cave dweller

Cite this Entry

“Cave dweller.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cave%20dweller. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!