dig, v.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dig v.¹

1. (US campus) to work extremely hard.

1827–8		Harvard Register in Hall (1856) 247: Another, in his study chair, / Digs up Greek roots with learned care, — / Unpalatable eating.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 12 Feb. n.p.: Asked for Miss Mary; was told she was upstairs [in the brothel] digging.
1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 158: dig. To study hard; to spend much time in studying.
1868		L.M. Alcott Little Women II 177: Laurie ‘dug’ to some purpose that year, for he graduated with honor.
1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 702: He is less to be pitied than the one who goes through the four years, digging and grinding for a stand, existing all unconscious of the peculiar and delightful life about him, and graduating in as utter ignorance of its philosophy.
1894		P.L. Ford Peter Stirling 14: Peter dug at his books all the harder, by reason of Watts’s neglect of them [DA].
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 32: dig, v. To study constantly.
1910		H. Hapgood Types from City Streets 246: He got a ‘wise guy’ to teach him a little business sense and ‘got down’ and ‘dug’.
1915		R. Bolwell ‘College Sl. Words And Phrases’ in DN IV:iii 233: dig, v. To study. ‘I’m going to dig some German.’.

2. (US) to chew snuff.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 7 May n.p.: This fight was brought about by Holmes telling one of Bryant’s friends [...] that she dug and had bad breath.
1855		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 14 Apr. n.p.: She gets drunk once a day, ‘digs’ three times, and swears every five minutes.
1861		N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 5 Oct. 6/3: Anne Smith, the snuff digging street walker.

3. (US) to leave quickly, to run off (cf. dig out v. (1)) [one digs oneself out of the current situation or one digs one’s heels into the ground as one runs].

1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 154: He wanted to get his Velvet and Dig.
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 133: dig, v. To leave at once. ‘He’d just better dig and never come back.’.
1910		G.B. McCutcheon Rose in the Ring 334: If it wasn’t for you, Davy, I’d cut it in a minute and dig for the wooly West .

4. (US, also dig up) to search in one’s pockets for money; sometimes refers to tobacco, used in prison for barter (see cit. 1907).

1902		C.L. Cullen More Ex-Tank Tales 100: You dig, dat’s all, an’ save trouble, an’ dig quick.
1907		J. London Road 105: The guy who refused to dig up, went sparkless and smokeless to bed.
1915		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 24 Feb. [synd. cartoon] We’re always diggin’ — it’s either a funeral, wedding, bum voyage [...] christening, or something else .
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 160: I’d dig if I wasn’t so Poor just now.

5. to stab.

1912		Proc. Old Bailey 11 June 248: [The] prisoner rushed at me and dug me under the chin; I did not see what he had in his hand. He ran away; I started after him, but I had to stop from loss of blood.
1918		H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 26/2: DIG. To stab.
1929		W. Winchell On Broadway 3 Oct. [synd. col.] No one of [his friends] could bring himself to the point of playing him dirty or digging him in the back.

6. in fig. use of sense 3, to pay for, i.e. to dig in one’s pocket.

1920

Ade Hand-made Fables 196–7: They were willing to Dig, in order to protect Property Interests against vicious Socialistic Tendencies.

7. (US Und.) to pick pockets (incompetently).

1925		H. Leverage ‘Dict. Und.’ in Flynn’s mag. cited in Partridge DU (1949).
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl. 33: Dig, v. To pick pockets in a clumsy manner.
1999		J. Maple Crime Fighter 44: Gregory Gadson was the worst pickpocket in the world [...] so awkward he almost never finished digging a pocket before the victim was staring him straight in the eyes.

8. (US) to deliver a verbal thrust or riposte.

1974

G. Radano Stories Cops Only Tell Each Other 167: The guys in my squad used to rib me. ‘What, you haven’t caught Farbie yet?’ ‘If he’s so easy,’ I dug back, ‘you try to bag him’ .

9. (UK drugs) to inject a drug intravenously.

2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 254: I don’t mind tooting, but no way am I digging.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 158: Having a few cans, he says. Digging smack, more like.

In phrases

(at) full dig (adv.)

speedily.

1856

C. Abbey diary 14 Sept. in Gosnell Before the Mast (1989) 71: I was the first to reach it & ran up a small pair of stone stairs ‘full dig’.

dig dirt (v.)

as an imper., get moving fast.

1954

Oh Boy! No. 20 10: Dig dirt chum. I think I want a word with that speed agent.

dig down (v.) (also dig deep)

(US/Aus.) to pay out of one’s own pocket.

1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 264: Dere’s a feller comes round [...] an’ den it’s up to de fam’lies what lives in de tenements to dig down into deir jeans fer de stuff.
1926		B.Q. Morgan ‘Simile and Metaphor in American Speech’ in AS I:5 272: dig down deep.
1936		W.R. Burnett King Cole 58: ‘[T]ake plenty. We’ll need it.’ ‘I intend to. Those boys were mighty standoffish two years ago. They didn’t dig very deep into the sock. Now they’ve got to really dig down’.
1948		S, Paige Pitchin’ Man 22: I suppose you're wonderin' if I ever paid that $500. Well, I did. [. . . .] I hadda dig deep.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 206: I meant to make the old fox dig down fairly deep to hurt him where he’d feel it most.
1960		A. Buzo Front Room Boys Scene viii: Come on now . . . dig deep . . . pay up.
1967		J. Hibberd White with Wire Wheels (1973) 87: Come on now . . . dig deep . . . pay up.

dig foot (v.)

(W.I.) to run away fast.

1931

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

dig out (v.)

see separate entry.

dig up (v.)

1. see sense 3 above.

2. see separate entries.

in full dig

earning one’s full pay.

1889–90

Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

dig-out (n.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

dig a day under the skin (v.)

to shave on alternate days.

1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

dig a ditch (v.)

(US gay) to have anal intercourse.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1989–2003		R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐 anal intercourse: [...] Syn: dig a ditch.

dig a hole in the road (v.)

(US) to drive fast.

1958

E. Gilbert Vice Trap 23: Throw her in second at seventy. And dig some hole in the road.

dig for gold (v.) [backform. f. gold-digger n.¹ (2)]

1. to sleep with or marry a man for his money.

1990

E. George ‘The Evidence Exposed’ Evidence Exposed (1999) 19: Dolly’s digging for gold and she’s found the mother lode, apparently.

2. (US campus) to pick one’s nose.

2003

Eble Campus Sl. Nov.

dig horrors (v.)

see separate entry.

dig in the grave (v.)

see separate entry.

dig into (v.)

(US Und.) to rob (a bank), to break into a safe.

1928

J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 98: We would have dug into the jugs if the penalty had been the electric chair.

dig up (v.)

see separate entry.

dig with both feet (v.) [play on dig with the...foot v.]

(Ulster) to be duplicitous, cunning; in positive sense, to be very clever.

1996

C.I. Macafee Concise Ulster Dict.

dig with the...foot (v.)

see separate entry.

dig v.1

In phrases

SE in slang uses

In compounds

In phrases

dig v.¹