Showing results for "dive"

• plural of diva.

dive

American  

[dahyv] / daɪv /

verb (used without object)

• dives,
  present (3rd person singular)
• dived,
  past participle,  past
• dove,
  past participle,  past
• diving
  present participle

1. to plunge into water, especially headfirst.

2. to go below the surface of the water, as a submarine.

3. to plunge, fall, or descend through the air, into the earth, etc..

   The acrobats dived into nets.

4. Aeronautics. (of an airplane) to descend rapidly.

5. to penetrate suddenly into something, as with the hand.

   to dive into one's purse.

6. to dart.

   to dive into a doorway.

7. to enter deeply or plunge into a subject, activity, etc.

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verb (used with object)

• dives,
  present (3rd person singular)
• dived,
  past participle,  past
• dove,
  past participle,  past
• diving
  present participle

1. to cause to plunge, submerge, or descend.

2. to insert quickly; plunge.

   He dived his hand into his pocket.

noun

• dives
  plural

1. an act or instance of diving.

2. a jump or plunge into water, especially in a prescribed way from a diving board.

3. the vertical or nearly vertical descent of an airplane at a speed surpassing the possible speed of the same plane in level flight.

4. a submerging, as of a submarine or skin diver.

5. a dash, plunge, or lunge, as if throwing oneself at or into something.

   He made a dive for the football.

6. a sudden or sharp decline, as in stock prices.

7. Slang.

   1. a dingy or disreputable bar or nightclub.

      Grab a beer with some locals at the dive on the corner.

   2. any shabby, run-down place, especially a residence.

8. Boxing. a false show of being knocked out, usually in a bout whose result has been prearranged.

   to take a dive in an early round.

9. Also called simulated contact.  Soccer. a dramatic fall or feigned injury intended to persuade officials to penalize the opposing team.

   His dive fooled the ref into giving his team a free kick.

dive British  

/ daɪv /

verb

1. to plunge headfirst into water

2. (of a submarine, swimmer, etc) to submerge under water

3. (also tr) to fly (an aircraft) in a steep nose-down descending path, or (of an aircraft) to fly in such a path

4. to rush, go, or reach quickly, as in a headlong plunge

   he dived for the ball

5. (also tr; foll by in or into) to dip or put (one's hand) quickly or forcefully (into)

   to dive into one's pocket

6. to involve oneself (in something), as in eating food

7. slang soccer (of a footballer) to pretend to have been tripped or impeded by an opposing player in order to win a free kick or penalty

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noun

1. a headlong plunge into water, esp one of several formalized movements executed as a sport

2. an act or instance of diving

3. a steep nose-down descent of an aircraft

4. slang a disreputable or seedy bar or club

5. slang boxing the act of a boxer pretending to be knocked down or out

   he took a dive in the fourth round

6. slang soccer the act of a player pretending to have been tripped or impeded

Usage

Both dived and dove are standard as the past tense of dive. Dived, historically the older form, is somewhat more common in edited writing, but dove occurs there so frequently that it also must be considered standard: The rescuer dove into 20 feet of icy water. Dove is an Americanism that probably developed by analogy with alternations like drive, drove and ride, rode. It is the more common form in speech in the northern United States and in Canada, and its use seems to be spreading. The past participle of dive is always dived.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underdive
  noun
• underdive
  verb (used without object)
• postdive
  adjective
• predive
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• dives
  plural

Participles

• diving
  present
• dived
  past
• dove
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• dive
  simple
• dives
  simple
• have dived
  perfect
• have dove
  perfect
• has dived
  perfect
• has dove
  perfect
• am diving
  progressive
• are diving
  progressive
• is diving
  progressive
• have been diving
  perfect progressive
• has been diving
  perfect progressive

Past

• dived
  simple
• dove
  simple
• had dived
  perfect
• had dove
  perfect
• was diving
  progressive
• were diving
  progressive
• had been diving
  perfect progressive

Future

• will dive
  simple
• will have dived
  perfect
• will have dove
  perfect
• will be diving
  progressive
• will have been diving
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of dive

First recorded before 900; Middle English diven “to dive, dip,” Old English dȳfan “to dip” (causative of dūfan “to dive, sink”); cognate with Old Norse dȳfa “to dip,” German taufen “to baptize”; akin to dip ¹

Explanation

To dive is to jump head first into the water. You might dare your friend to dive off a boat into a cold lake. When you dive, you plunge into a pool or other body of water. A bird or airplane also dives when it descends suddenly. The plunge or drop itself is also a dive: "When the plane went into a dive I had to close my eyes." Since 1871, dive has also been used informally for a low-rent or slightly dangerous bar, possibly from the idea that descending to a basement-level establishment involved a "dive" of sorts.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dive dives dived dove diving

"When you dive into the Iliad, you really understand that Homer was an Anatolian. You find anecdotes and cultural references that are completely unknown elsewhere," he said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026

Ramsay-Peaty has been working on his dive with coach Lisa Bates since June and said the past few weeks have been "one of those lessons".

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Someone has me hold their phone while they dive through shorebreak.

From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026

Such a prolonged closure will send the more than 400,000 people who pour through the center’s turnstiles each year scrambling to find other places to swim, dive, play water polo and aqua-aerobicize.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026

I’m about to dive in, shatter the perfect mirror beneath me, when my phone chimes his chime, and the relaxed confidence I was enjoying rushes out of me, like water rushing from a broken dam.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

Some perform feats of strength, flips, aerial dance moves, head-first dives.

From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026

The leaps and dives have rattled investors, raising worries that the artificial-intelligence rally that carried stocks to records could be coming to an end.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

During 32 dives to the site, explorers collected samples from 485 whale-fossil sites and active whale falls, and found a treasure trove of remains, including one extinct whale's skeleton.

From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026

For the discovery, the Fendouzhe submersible carried out 32 dives in 2023 -- though what it found was only revealed in Nature on Wednesday.

From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026

The cosmonauts in training flew in the MiG-15-Spark while the jet made steep climbs and dives.

From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson

One writer sailing the Persian Gulf in 1939 described how 32 men each dived 100 times beneath the sea, filling seven sacks with oysters, only to find a “teaspoonful” of low-grade pearls in their haul.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

While still only 30 years old, Phillips' career has nose dived since joining City from Leeds in 2022, playing just seven minutes of EFL Cup action for the club over the past two seasons.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

The Kospi, heavily exposed to memory chip makers, ended 11% lower as SK Hynix dived 15% and Samsung declined 13%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

Alphabet shares dived almost seven percent and Tesla plunged more than 14 percent.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

Some dived below, while others swam toward floating jerricans that served as buoys on a fishing net.

From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo

In the latest episode of “The De Los Podcast,” Díaz dove into his early career and inside the making of his latest album, the culinary-inspired “Omakase,” which went No. 1 in 16 Latin countries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

A survey of the Blean will focus on six endangered species that are found there, including the the heath fritillary butterfly, one of the UK's rarest, and the turtle dove.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

Despite having been in basic training only eight months, he knew what that meant, and dove for the floor.

From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026

Warsh may be more of a dove on rates than he appears at first glance.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 2026

I dove behind the counter, where the innkeep was already huddled.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

Klaasen was superbly caught by a diving Donald on the boundary before Bracewell was pinned lbw, and the crowd came to life at Dawson's swings and misses at his first two balls.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

Pearl diving has all but disappeared, particularly after the mass production of cultured pearls on farms after World War I. In Gulf countries, the extinction of this profession converges with a familiar story.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Since retiring from competitive diving, Woodward has been travelling around the world making social media videos about food and culture with his girlfriend, Chika Izumi - a former artistic swimmer on Japan's national team.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

LA28 plans to hold Olympic diving events at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026

At the heart of the expedition was the intense planning that went on before any diving took place.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

Related Words

• dip
• disappear
• drop
• duck
• fall
• jump
• leap
• lunge
• nose-dive
• plummet
• plunge
• swoop
• vanish
• vault