dig out

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dig out (third-person singular simple present digs out, present participle digging out, simple past and past participle dug out)

1. (transitive) To remove something by digging.

   The archaeologist dug out a Saxon dagger.

   Houdini not only got out of the ropes: he also dug himself out of the hole he had been buried in.

   • 1941 April, “Notes and News: Railwaymen and Snow”, in Railway Magazine, page 177:

     Midway between these stations a plough with two engines, which had been keeping the line open throughout the Sunday, became completely snowed up, and another engine sent from the Arrochar direction with men to assist in digging out the plough itself was caught in a drift south of Glen Douglas.

2. (transitive, sometimes figurative) To find or retrieve something buried.

   I shall try to dig out my old textbooks.

   • 2011 February 13, Lyle Jackson, “Ireland 22-25 France”, in BBC‎:

     But Ireland dug out a gutsy response and applied pressure which resulted in number eight Heaslip diving over in the corner to revive home hopes.

   • 2021 June 30, Tim Dunn, “How we made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in RAIL, number 934, page 50:

     While you see some of our exploration on camera, I also spent many happy hours between shoots with Chris Nix, digging out dozens of wonderful plans, maps and drawings of projects that I never knew existed, and some that never did exist.

3. (transitive) To make something by digging.

   We had to dig out our foxhole while under fire.

4. (intransitive, US, slang) To decamp; to leave a place hastily.
5. (transitive, slang) To have penetrative sexual intercourse with someone.

   I'd like to dig her out.

6. (transitive, cricket) To block a yorker with the bottom of the bat, at the last second.

• (have sexual intercourse with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

• outdig