dig up v.1
1. to discover, to unearth, to find.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Annals of the Army of the Cumberland 542: He [...] ‘dug up’ some items of much interest to the Union cause. | |
 | N.Y. W. Times 28 Mar. n.p.: Senator Sherman digs up the past and screams over the ancient relics [DA]. | |
| (con. 1875) Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 281: The skipper, with a twinkling eye, announced that he had ‘dug up’ some rolls of ‘cloth’ (calico). | |
| It’s Up to You 22: Percy dug up a dollar [and] gave it to Tacks. | |
| ‘The Fifth Wheel’ in Strictly Business (1915) 67: He might have dug up a dollar, anyhow. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Digger Dialects 21: dug-up — Found (usually of an absentee). | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Carry On, Jeeves 1: I was reluctantly compelled to hand the misguided blighter the mitten and go to London to ask the registry office to dig up another. | |
| N.Y. Times n.p.: A Camp Dix soldier who ordered ‘as much as you can send,’ because the ‘CCC boys are ready to go East, West and South, and I have dug up a number of clients’. | |
| Long Wait (1954) 203: You dug up a lot of information on friend Tucker. | |
| Gaily, Gaily 22: It was the nuttiest scene I ever saw in my life! Right out of Rabelais! Where in hell did you dig up Miss Van Arsdale? | |
| Carlito’s Way 80: Rivas was a stone degenerate but he sure could dig up some freaky broads. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 125: I might be able to dig up some leads on people who had been searching for the late unlamented looper. | |
| (con. 1986) Sweet Forever 52: So we’ll start with some of those neighborhood rummies down there, see what we can dig up. |
2. to obtain, to provide; to pay over.
| Tramp Diary in Jack London On the Road (1979) 57: Dig up. How much stuff have you got? | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 146: It looked as if he’d be digging up for a musical comedy before long. | |
| News & Courier (Charleston, SC) 14 Apr. 18/2: You’re going to let me glide out of here when I dig up for this bonnet, ain’t you? | |
| ‘Harmony’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 182: I didn’t see my way clear to asking the old man to dig up good money for an outfielder nobody’d ever heard of. | |
| Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 48: A shack [...] telling us to dig up or unload. | |
| ‘The Snatching of Bookie Bob’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 118: Family or friends dig up enough scratch to pay. | |
| Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 142: Can you dig up thirteen hundred for me right away? | |
| Little Men, Big World 97: Why don’t you get Rudy to dig up some boys? | |
| Big Rumble 70: He was told to buy one. He told them he had to dig up the money. |
3. to disturb, to awaken.
| Dames Don’t Care (1960) 20: I reckon he is not goin’ to be so pleased about being dug up at this time of the night. |
4. to look for.
| Gangster Girl 19: When you dug me up here, Annie, you walked in on no sucker. | |
| Go, Man, Go! 73: How long were you with her before she dug me up? |