Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To plunge, especially headfirst, into water.
  • intransitive verb To execute a dive in athletic competition.
  • intransitive verb To participate in the sport of competitive diving.
  • intransitive verb To go toward the bottom of a body of water.
  • intransitive verb To engage in the sport of scuba diving.
  • intransitive verb To submerge under power. Used of a submarine.
  • intransitive verb To fall head down through the air.
  • intransitive verb To descend nose down at an acceleration usually exceeding that of free fall. Used of an airplane.
  • intransitive verb To engage in the sport of skydiving.
  • intransitive verb To drop sharply and rapidly; plummet.
  • intransitive verb To rush headlong and vanish into something.
  • intransitive verb To plunge one's hand into something.
  • intransitive verb To lunge or leap headfirst.
  • intransitive verb To plunge into an activity or enterprise with vigor and gusto.
  • intransitive verb Sports To exaggerate a fall in an attempt to induce a referee to call a penalty on an opponent.
  • intransitive verb To cause (an aircraft, for example) to dive.
  • intransitive verb To go scuba-diving to or along.
  • noun A plunge into water, especially done headfirst and in a way established for athletic competition.
  • noun The act or an instance of going under water, as of a submarine or a skin diver.
  • noun A nearly vertical descent at an accelerated speed through the air.
  • noun A rapid or abrupt decrease.
  • noun Slang A disreputable or run-down bar or nightclub.
  • noun A run-down residence.
  • noun A knockout feigned by a prizefighter.
  • noun An exaggerated fall, especially by a hockey player, intended to draw a penalty against an opponent.
  • noun A lunge or a headlong jump.
  • noun Football An offensive play in which the carrier of the ball plunges into the opposing line in order to gain short yardage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To descend or plunge head first into water; thrust the body suddenly into water or other fluid; plunge deeply: as, to dive for shells.
  • To make a plunge in any way; plunge suddenly downward or forward, especially so as to disappear: as, to dive down a precipice or into a forest.
  • To plunge or enter deeply into something that engrosses the attention; engage deeply in anything: as, to dive to the bottom of a subject; to dive into the whirl of business.
  • To explore by diving.
  • noun A descent or plunge head first into water or other fluid; a “header”: as, a dive from a spring-board.
  • noun A sudden attack or swoop: as, to make a dive.
  • noun A disreputable place of resort, where drinking and other forms of vice are indulged in, and, commonly, vulgar entertainments are given: so called because often situated in basements or other half-concealed places into which the resorters may “dive” with little risk of observation.

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

  • intransitive verb To plunge into water head foremost; to thrust the body under, or deeply into, water or other fluid.
  • intransitive verb Fig.: To plunge or to go deeply into any subject, question, business, etc.; to penetrate; to explore.
  • transitive verb obsolete To plunge (a person or thing) into water; to dip; to duck.
  • transitive verb rare To explore by diving; to plunge into.
  • noun A plunge headforemost into water, the act of one who dives, literally or figuratively.
  • noun Slang A place of low resort.

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

  • noun Plural form of diva.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English diven, from Old English dȳfan, to dip, and from dūfan, to sink; see dheub- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian; see diva.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English diven, duven, from the merger of Old English dȳfan ("to dip, immerse", transitive weak verb) and dūfan ("to duck, dive, sink, penetrate", intransitive strong verb) (past participle ġedofen). Cognate with Icelandic dýfa ("to dip, dive"), Low German bedaven ("covered, covered with water").

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Examples

  • The film, which earned an "A+" CinemaScore grade, is playing very well to families, and it should continue to enjoy small drops which is a shame if you're a pun-happy box office writer dying to use the word "dive!" in the weeks to come.

    CNN.com 2011

  • Each dive is different as is each piece of writing, so take each experience as it comes.

    Writing Tips: 7 Lessons from Scuba Diving - The Creative Penn | The Creative Penn 2009

  • My aunt used to own a house not too far from Steel Pier, and I remember being able to watch the horses dive from the beach.

    The Diving Horses of Atlantic City » E-Mail 2009

  • My aunt used to own a house not too far from Steel Pier, and I remember being able to watch the horses dive from the beach.

    The Diving Horses of Atlantic City 2009

  • I have seen her dive from the bridge deck – no mean feat in itself – into that six-feet of water, and fetch up no less than forty-seven coins, scattered willy-nilly over the whole bottom of the tank.

    Under the Deck Awnings 2010

  • In the afternoon of the same day, Lee and Ida Barton made their shallow dive from the Outrigger beach, and went on, at a steady stroke, past the diving-stage to the big water beyond the Kanaka

    THE KANAKA SURF 2010

  • Mr. Allan, whose firm has $6.5 billion in assets under management, says he began preparing clients for a downgrade and a subsequent short-term dive in equity and bond markets weeks ago.

    What a Downgrade Means for You Jonathan Cheng 2011

  • But this boy could do it – seventy feet I know he cleared in one dive from the rigging – clenched hands on chest, head thrown back, sailing more like a bird, upward and out, and out and down, body flat on the air so that if it struck the surface in that position it would be split in half like a herring.

    Under the Deck Awnings 2010

  • The dive is said to be equivalent to jumping off a 12-story building in a vertical free fall.

    Did You Know? Mexico in the Guinness world records: part one 2008

  • The dive is said to be equivalent to jumping off a 12-story building in a vertical free fall.

    Did You Know? Mexico in the Guinness world records: part one 2008

Comments

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  • A fusion of two Old English verbs: the transitive umlauted form dýfan "dip, submerge (a thing)" gave the modern form and weak conjugation—dive, dived, dived; whereas the primary verb dúfan dropped out in early Middle English, bequeathing its intransitive meaning "dive" to the other. If it had survived into Modern English it might go douve, deve, doven (I'm never very sure about how ablaut grades are inherited). The North American strong preterite dove is a new, quite modern formation.

    May 27, 2009

  • In OE there was no 'v' ... here, the f=v.

    bedofen - drowned ; pp. of bedúfan. (bedoven, pp of beduvan)

    dúfan - past: ðú dufe, pl. dufon; pp. dofen To DIVE, sink

    dove is just a mutation of the ú in the 2nd person (ðu duve); doven straight from dofen.

    In ME we have bedoven for "drenched" or "drowned":

    Alle hir body..semyd be dowen in blood (here w=v)- Life of Saint Christina Mirabilis of Saint Trudons St.Christina Mirab. (All her body seemed bedoven in blood.)

    October 6, 2011

  • I met a fifacious girl in a dife bar. She was politically saffy, fery, fery suafe in a veminine kind ov way. I let her play my fufuzela.

    October 6, 2011

  • And then she gafe you the shofe?

    October 6, 2011

  • O cruel vortune! She wanted something more exciting than nights at home watching tf.

    October 6, 2011