Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hollow or natural passage under or into the earth, especially one with an opening to the surface.
  • noun A storage cellar, especially for wine.
  • intransitive verb To dig or hollow out.
  • intransitive verb To cause to collapse or fall in. Often used with in:
  • intransitive verb To fall in; collapse. Often used with in:
  • intransitive verb To give up all opposition; yield. Often used with in:
  • intransitive verb To explore caves.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A toss, as of the head.
  • To make hollow; hollow out.
  • To dwell in a cave.
  • To fall in and leave a hollow, as earth on the side of a well or pit: absolutely, or with in: as, the earth began to cave.
  • Figuratively, to break down; yield; give up; submit; knock under: absolutely, or with in: as, at this he caved.
  • To toss or pitch: as, to cave hay.
  • To toss in a threatening or haughty manner: as, to cave the horns (said of horned cattle); to cave the head.
  • To clean (threshed grain) by tossing or raking (it) on a barn-floor or a threshing-floor.
  • To move; rush.
  • To sink; be plunged or buried.
  • noun A hollow place in the earth; especially, a natural cavity of considerable size, extending more or less horizontally into a hill or mountain; a cavern; a den.
  • noun A cellar; a subterranean chamber.
  • noun Any hollow place or part; a cavity.
  • noun The ash-pit of a glass-furnace.
  • noun [capitalized] A name given to a party in the British Parliament who seceded from the Liberals on the reform bill introduced by them in 1866. See Adullamite.
  • noun Any small faction of seceders or dissidents in Parliament.
  • noun A cave-in.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To dwell in a cave.
  • intransitive verb To fall in or down. Hence (Slang), to retreat from a position; to give way; to yield in a disputed matter.
  • intransitive verb [Slang] To submit; to yield.
  • transitive verb obsolete To make hollow; to scoop out.
  • noun A hollow place in the earth, either natural or artificial; a subterraneous cavity; a cavern; a den.
  • noun obsolete Any hollow place, or part; a cavity.
  • noun (Eng. Politics) A coalition or group of seceders from a political party, as from the Liberal party in England in 1866. See Adullam, Cave of, in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a very large fossil bear (Ursus spelæus) similar to the grizzly bear, but large; common in European caves.
  • noun a savage of prehistoric times whose dwelling place was a cave.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a fossil hyena found abundanty in British caves, now usually regarded as a large variety of the living African spotted hyena.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a fossil lion found in the caves of Europe, believed to be a large variety of the African lion.
  • noun See under Bone.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • interjection UK, public school slang look out!; beware!
  • noun A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground, or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
  • noun A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.
  • noun A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.
  • noun A place of retreat, such as a man cave.
  • noun caving A naturally-occurring cavity in bedrock which is large enough to be entered by an adult.
  • 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.
  • noun figuratively The vagina.
  • noun slang, politics, often "Cave" A group that breaks from a larger political party or faction on a particular issue.
  • verb To surrender.
  • verb To collapse.
  • verb To hollow out or undermine.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin cava, from neuter pl. of cavus, hollow; see keuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin cavē, second-person singular present active imperative of caveō ("to beware").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Anglo-Norman cave, from Latin cava ("cavity"), from cavus ("hollow"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱówHwos (“cavity”) (compare Irish cúas ("hollow, cavity"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱówH- (compare Tocharian B kor ("throat"), Albanian cup ("odd, uneven"), Ancient Greek κύαρ (kýar, "eye of needle, earhole"), Old Armenian սոր (sor, "hole"), Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, "empty, barren, zero")).

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Examples

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  • im in a cave-ave-ave-ave-ave-ave

    May 26, 2009