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• digger
  digger

  noun

  a person or an animal that digs.
• Digger
  Digger

  noun

  (sometimes not capital)

digger

American  

[dig-er] / ˈdɪg ər /

noun

• diggers
  plural

1. a person or an animal that digs.

2. a tool, part of a machine, etc., for digging.

3. Also called Digger Indian.  (initial capital letter) a member of any of several Indian peoples of western North America, especially of a tribe that dug roots for food.

4. an Australian or New Zealand soldier of World War I.

5. (initial capital letter) a member of a group that advocated the abolition of private property and began in 1649 to cultivate certain common lands.

6. Slang. a person hired by a scalper to buy tickets to a show or performance for resale by the scalper at inflated prices.

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Digger ¹ British  

/ ˈdɪɡə /

noun

1. archaic (sometimes not capital)

   1. an Australian or New Zealander, esp a soldier: often used as a term of address

   2. ( as modifier )

      a Digger accent

2. one of a number of tribes of America whose diet was largely composed of roots dug out of the ground

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digger ² British  

/ ˈdɪɡə /

noun

1. a person, animal, or machine that digs

2. a miner, esp one who digs for gold

3. a tool or part of a machine used for excavation, esp a mechanical digger fitted with a head for digging trenches

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• diggers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of digger

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at dig ¹, -er ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

digger Digger diggers

In central London, a construction digger unearths an unexploded World War II bomb, and it starts to tick.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026

Nesbitt, who grew up near Rochester, N.Y., worked as a grave digger in high school.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026

An AFP journalist in Nangarhar's Bihsud district said residents from around the remote and mountainous area joined rescuers in one village, using a digger and shovels to search for bodies under the rubble.

From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026

Videos recorded by Ms Marland appear to show Mr Bancroft using a small digger to take soil from her land and move it to the opposite riverbank which he owns.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2025

He lived in the swampy, disagreeable Fen, probably the child of a dragger or digger.

From "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry

A few years later, in 1649, Digger leaders William Everard and Gerrard Winstanley refused to remove their hats when brought before General Fairfax, insisting he was 'but their fellow Creature'.

From Science Daily ● May 7, 2026

The iconic black-and-white photo of the incident remains a classic for Hoosiers fans and even became fodder for a television commercial with one of his old coaching rivals, former Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 1, 2023

Starting with 1957’s “A Rage in Harlem,” he wrote eight books that follow detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones through the New York underworld of the 1950s and ’60s.

From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2023

Back then, Woodson and other Indiana prep stars were treated like royalty while coaches Bob Knight, Digger Phelps and Gene Keady introduced a new generation of players to basketball’s basic fundamentals.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 16, 2022

Digger looked away for a second, and when he looked back at me, his voice had lost its angry timbre.

From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings

While mining has temporarily stopped in Amin's village, not far from his home, in Gulak-Dara valley, dozens of diggers were carving into the mountainside.

From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026

"It's better than anything else... There aren't many jobs in Kabul," said the 21-year-old, above the din of diggers.

From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026

KHARTOUM, Sudan — The diggers were efficient, cramming in so many graves that, from above, the field near the University of Sudan’s medical campus looked like a frieze of an undulating, gravel-brown sea.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2026

Eventually, two diggers were deployed on Thursday to dredge a channel for the whale to swim into deeper water, and rescue teams worked late into the day under floodlights to save it.

From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026

So the diggers avoided the areas where the clay was striped dirty white or rusty red, as clay of these colors did not make the transformation to celadon green when fired.

From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park