ex·ca·vate /ˈɛkskəˌvet/
 (vt.)(vi.)挖,挖開,鑿通


 ex·ca·vate /ˈɛkskəˌvet/ 動詞
 (拉excavatus)掘開的,凹入的,凹下的


 Ex·ca·vate v. t. [imp. & p. p. Excavated p. pr. & vb. n. Excavating ]
 1. To hollow out; to form cavity or hole in; to make hollow by cutting, scooping, or digging; as, to excavate a ball; to excavate the earth.
 2. To form by hollowing; to shape, as a cavity, or anything that is hollow; as, to excavate a canoe, a cellar, a channel.
 3. Engin. To dig out and remove, as earth.
    The material excavated was usually sand.   --E. L. Corthell.
 Excavating pump, a kind of dredging apparatus for excavating under water, in which silt and loose material mixed with water are drawn up by a pump.

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 excavate
      v 1: lay bare through digging; "Schliemann excavated Troy" [syn:
           unearth]
      2: find by digging in the ground; "I dug up an old box in the
         garden" [syn: dig up, turn up]
      3: form by hollowing; "Carnegie had a lake excavated for
         Princeton University's rowing team"; "excavate a cavity"
      4: remove the inner part or the core of; "the mining company
         wants to excavate the hillsite" [syn: dig, hollow]