excavate
verb (used with object)
to make hollow by removing the inner part; make a hole or cavity in; form into a hollow, as by digging.
excavates
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present tense formof excavate (3rd person singular).present tense
Used to describe things happening now or regularly.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In a breezy, sun-soaked 90 minutes, Romvari excavates a lifetime of knotted, intergenerational trauma — a phrase that almost feels too heavy and too burdened by cryptic implications, given how this movie explores it.
From Salon ● May 25, 2026
Translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney, Ms. Rivera Garza’s book is a fusion of fiction and nonfiction that excavates both national and family history.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
Paul White usually excavates live electricity and utility cables but on this job the former Royal Marine needed to get his head around the anatomy of a whale.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
“Heroes” excavates a stratum of white America with the same incisive probing that “Slave Play” brought to its investigation of our country’s interracial foundation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2023
It sculptures the rocks and excavates the valleys, in most cases acting mainly through the soft rain, though our harder rocks are still grooved by the ice-chisel of bygone ages.
From The Pleasures of Life by Sir John Lubbock
