dig up

verb

dug up; digging up; digs up

transitive verb

: find, unearth

Synonyms

• ascertain
• descry
• detect
• determine
• dig out
• discover
• dredge (up)
• ferret (out)
• find
• find out
• get
• hit (on or upon)
• hunt (down or up)
• learn
• locate
• nose out
• root (out)
• rout (out)
• rummage
• run down
• scare up
• scout (up)
• track (down)
• turn up

Examples of dig up in a Sentence

she tried to dig up any information she could for the report on sharks

Recent Examples on the Web

These are questions that likely can’t be resolved easily, but that’s the nature of digging up ancient rage that was never properly dealt with to begin with. —Steph Koyfman, Condé Nast Traveler, 28 Oct. 2024

That they were never dug up by their owner suggests to historians that they may have been lost or abandoned because of the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest. —Hannah Peart, NBC News, 23 Oct. 2024

Kevin Yeung, the city’s culture and tourism minister, told local public broadcaster RTHK that works at the zoo required digging up the soil near where the monkeys lived. —Reuters, CNN, 21 Oct. 2024

However, for spring/summer 2025, Mugler pulled off an equally fantastical moment— digging up archival beauty references to celebrate the house’s darkly dramatic 50th anniversary. —India Espy-Jones, Essence, 4 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above