EXCAVATE

excavate, dig, hollow

(verb) remove the inner part or the core of; “the mining company wants to excavate the hillside”

excavate

(verb) form by hollowing; “Carnegie had a lake excavated for Princeton University’s rowing team”; “excavate a cavity”

excavate, dig up, turn up

(verb) find by digging in the ground; “I dug up an old box in the garden”

excavate, unearth

(verb) recover through digging; “Schliemann excavated Troy”; “excavate gold”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology 1

Verb

excavate (third-person singular simple present excavates, present participle excavating, simple past and past participle excavated)

(transitive) To make a hole in (something); to hollow.

(transitive) To remove part of (something) by scooping or digging it out.

(transitive) To uncover (something) by digging.

Etymology 2

Noun

excavate (plural excavates)

(zoology) Any member of a major grouping of unicellular eukaryotes, of the clade Excavata.

Source: Wiktionary

Ex"ca*vate, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Excavated(); p. pr. & vb. n. Excavating().] Etym: [L. excavatus, p. p. of excavare to excavate; ex out + cavare to make hollow, cavus hollow. See Cave.]

1. To hollow out; to form cavity or hole in; to make hollow by cutting, scooping, or digging; as, to excavate a ball; to excavate the earth.

2. To form by hollowing; to shape, as a cavity, or anything that is hollow; as, to excavate a canoe, a cellar, a channel.

3. (Engin.)

Definition: To dig out and remove, as earth. The material excavated was usually sand. E. L. Corthell. Excavating pump, a kind of dredging apparatus for excavating under water, in which silt and loose material mixed with water are drawn up by a pump. Knight.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition