dive
Americanverb (used without object)
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dives,
present (3rd person singular)
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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)
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dives,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dived,
past participle, past
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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.
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a dingy or disreputable bar or nightclub.
Grab a beer with some locals at the dive on the corner.
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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
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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
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am divingprogressive
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are divingprogressive
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is divingprogressive
-
have been divingperfect progressive
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has been divingperfect progressive
Past
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divedsimple
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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:
A deep dive into the life of billionaire investor Leon Black, the private-equity behemoth he helped build, and his unfortunate friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2026
The little L.A. shop was a destination for Hello Kitty fans for decades when it decided to dive into a massive new wave of e-commerce — peddling its products live on TikTok.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
A freak show about a freak show, “O.J. Unseen: Exploitation of Evil” is a deep documentary dive into a septic TV concept that even now seems hard to grasp.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Before we dive in, let’s do a quick breakdown of the difference between the two.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
“It’s been a busy summer for the dive team. But I’m making meatballs for dinner.”
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
The goal, says Six Flags, is to provide an optimistic view of the future, albeit with many sudden dives and weightless moments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
Some perform feats of strength, flips, aerial dance moves, head-first dives.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
Mr. Ballard, a longtime journalist for Sports Illustrated, dives into the history and finds figures, such as Euripides and Benjamin Franklin, who extolled its health benefits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 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
The transporter dips and dives and then jerks to the left—hard.
From "Dragons in a Bag" by Zetta Elliott
New Zealand had ducked and dived to minimise the effect of South Africa's set-piece supremacy.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
But amid the crypto collapse in 2022, NFT sales volumes dived and never recovered as investors soured on the assets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 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
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
And both sisters dived into their pillows, trying to muffle their giggles.
From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin
In the eighth inning, he dove after a ground ball up the middle, as shortstop Mookie Betts hurdled over him, and was slow to get up, holding his right shoulder.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
The dove, famous for its place in the Twelve Days of Christmas song, is the country's fastest declining bird species according to the RSPB.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
A recent Wall Street Journal article dove into the reasons why people are keeping more than $3 trillion in retail money-market funds—near an all-time high, according to the Investment Company Institute.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 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
Otter after otter dove into the shallows, and when they popped up, they were grinning.
From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown
"Some of these diving birds' feathers seem to have been modern-looking and waterproof, but they also had some smaller, fuzzy, primitive body feathers that we associate with dinosaurs and enantiornithines," says O'Connor.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
The Asian Financial Crisis hit shortly after Tung took over, which sent home prices diving.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
He goes on to describe Shakur diving toward the BMW’s back seat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
But many companies were hesitant and said they would need security guarantees and an overhaul of Venezuela’s legal and commercial framework to consider diving in.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Probably no divers other than the Mediterranean sponge divers who grew up on the water and earned their living by diving could have achieved it.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
