DELVE
What does "DELVE" mean?
To search deeply and thoroughly into a subject, or literally to dig into the ground.
Meanings
- To investigate or research a topic in depth. The biographer delved into letters no one had read in a century.
- To dig, especially with a spade. The old gardener delved a fresh trench for the rose roots. archaic
Word origin
From Old English 'delfan' 'to dig', from Proto-Germanic 'delban'; the literal digging sense is the oldest, with the figurative 'investigate' sense growing from it.
Remember it
DELVE sounds like 'delve into a cave' - and it once meant literally to dig, so picture a spade going deep.
A little poem
Strike the spade past the easy loam-
the question worth the asking lies
under the layer you delve to reach.
tercet
Wordplay
- The archaeologist and the researcher both love to delve - one with a trowel, one with a footnote, both filthy by the end.
What it teaches
Surfaces are quickly known; only those willing to delve learn what a thing is actually made of.
Quick facts
What does DELVE mean?
To search deeply and thoroughly into a subject, or literally to dig into the ground.
Is DELVE a valid word?
Yes — DELVE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is DELVE?
DELVE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does DELVE come from?
From Old English 'delfan' 'to dig', from Proto-Germanic 'delban'; the literal digging sense is the oldest, with the figurative 'investigate' sense growing from it.
What can DELVE teach us?
Surfaces are quickly known; only those willing to delve learn what a thing is actually made of.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.