dive
Americanverb (used without object)
-
dives,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dived,
past participle, past
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dove,
past participle, past
-
diving
present participle
-
to plunge into water, especially headfirst.
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to go below the surface of the water, as a submarine.
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to plunge, fall, or descend through the air, into the earth, etc..
The acrobats dived into nets.
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Aeronautics. (of an airplane) to descend rapidly.
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to penetrate suddenly into something, as with the hand.
to dive into one's purse.
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to dart.
to dive into a doorway.
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to enter deeply or plunge into a subject, activity, etc.
verb (used with object)
-
dives,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dived,
past participle, past
-
dove,
past participle, past
-
diving
present participle
-
to cause to plunge, submerge, or descend.
-
to insert quickly; plunge.
He dived his hand into his pocket.
noun
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dives
plural
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an act or instance of diving.
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a jump or plunge into water, especially in a prescribed way from a diving board.
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the vertical or nearly vertical descent of an airplane at a speed surpassing the possible speed of the same plane in level flight.
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a submerging, as of a submarine or skin diver.
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a dash, plunge, or lunge, as if throwing oneself at or into something.
He made a dive for the football.
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a sudden or sharp decline, as in stock prices.
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Slang.
-
a dingy or disreputable bar or nightclub.
Grab a beer with some locals at the dive on the corner.
-
any shabby, run-down place, especially a residence.
-
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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.
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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.
verb
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to plunge headfirst into water
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(of a submarine, swimmer, etc) to submerge under water
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(also tr) to fly (an aircraft) in a steep nose-down descending path, or (of an aircraft) to fly in such a path
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to rush, go, or reach quickly, as in a headlong plunge
he dived for the ball
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(also tr; foll by in or into) to dip or put (one's hand) quickly or forcefully (into)
to dive into one's pocket
-
to involve oneself (in something), as in eating food
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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
noun
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a headlong plunge into water, esp one of several formalized movements executed as a sport
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an act or instance of diving
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a steep nose-down descent of an aircraft
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slang a disreputable or seedy bar or club
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slang boxing the act of a boxer pretending to be knocked down or out
he took a dive in the fourth round
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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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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divesimple
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divessimple
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have divedperfect
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have doveperfect
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has divedperfect
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has doveperfect
-
am divingprogressive
-
are divingprogressive
-
is divingprogressive
-
have been divingperfect progressive
-
has been divingperfect progressive
Past
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divedsimple
-
dovesimple
-
had divedperfect
-
had doveperfect
-
was divingprogressive
-
were divingprogressive
-
had been divingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing dive
"Hitching a Ride"
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Going Down: Synonyms for "Fall"
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Words with Two Past-Tense Forms That Creeped (or Crept) into English
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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.
See Examples For:
So like a salmon swimming up an icy Alaskan stream, let’s dive in.
From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2026
Daily inflows into the leveraged ETF continued until Thursday — the day its shares took a huge dive as semiconductor stocks saw sharp selloff, FactSet data showed.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 23, 2026
Earnings from Facebook-parent Meta and chip equipment maker Lam Research this week have beaten forecasts but seen their shares dive.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
The more-than 30% dive in Seoul-based AI cloud-computing company Elice’s shares on the first day of trading Tuesday shows mounting market concerns over debt-financed AI infrastructure investments, analysts said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
During each dive, they would experience 40-second periods of weightlessness.
From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson
“It’s how to take technical deep dives into strategies and tell those stories in a neat, accessible way that’s relatable.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 23, 2026
The WSJ’s Asa Fitch dives into why Treasury yields haven’t moved up despite hot inflation reports this week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Researchers collected the newly described species between September 2023 and August 2024 during dives reaching depths of up to 18 meters.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 25, 2026
This story is part of Image’s August Adornment issue, which dives into loud, expressive and distinctive accessories.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
We ate lunch—chicken salad sandwiches and cucumber spears, which didn’t need utensils—and then we headed back to the water, where Danny was throwing dives that the rest of us tried to match but couldn’t.
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
Alphabet dived 10 percent in after-hours trade, while Samsung lost more than five percent in Asian trade -- showing that traders have set a high bar for firms' earnings.
From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026
The 34-year-old dived full stretch to his left to save the last two penalties from Brighton's Yasin Ayari and Lewis Dunk to allow holders City to progress to the quarter-finals of the competition.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026
New Zealand had ducked and dived to minimise the effect of South Africa's set-piece supremacy.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Four ocean rescue swimmers jumped into the ocean and dived down to the submerged vehicle, where they were able to successfully extract the victim, who was later identified by her family as Alli Renee Singh.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
Instead of flying along with the Po-2s, they wove and dived around them.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
Advil maker Haleon’s HLN -15.88%decrease; red down pointing triangle shares dove after the company cut its outlook for the year and weak sales for cough medications weighed on results.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
When he was a teenager, Walters remembers, he dove into some catfish holes so vast he couldn’t find the back.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
"We all know the turtle dove from the festive carol, but the truth is they are now far too rare for such a Christmas gift," park ranger Paul Bushell said.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
Naturally, the crowd roared as she dove bob-first into “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
It was propelled vertically and horizontally by hand-cranked propellers, dove by allowing water into a tank at its bottom, and rose by allowing water to be pushed out through a hand pump.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
Bit by bit, Disney is continuing to shape itself into something more like its former nemesis, Netflix, including by diving more into the vertical-video and A.I. future while licensing visual podcasts as TV shows.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026
Her podcast “You Must Remember This,” about “the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century,” has spent 21 seasons diving into the intricacies of the movie industry, from lauded stars to undersung production designers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Today the islands are home to fewer than 50,000 people and are best known for beaches, diving and some World War II battlefields.
From Salon ● Oct. 13, 2026
Michigan would be 3-4 and diving into a murk-off with Rutgers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
“Well, Edem did teach me deep diving, but that was a long time ago!”
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
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