dig up

1) PHRASAL VERB If you dig up something, you remove it from the ground where it has been buried or planted.

[V P n (not pron)] You would have to dig up the plant yourself...

[V P n (not pron)] More bodies have been dug up at the site...

[V n P] He dug it up and Doris took one look and said: `That's not my jewellery.'

2) PHRASAL VERB If you dig up an area of land, you dig holes in it.

[V P n (not pron)] Yesterday they continued the search, digging up the back yard of a police station. [Also V n P]

3) PHRASAL VERB If you dig up information or facts, you discover something that has not previously been widely known.

[V P n (not pron)] Managers are too expensive and important to spend time digging up market information...

[V-ed P] His description fits perfectly the evidence dug up by Clyde. [Also V n P]

Syn:

unearth

4) PHRASAL VERB If you dig up something or someone, you find them and use or employ them. [INFORMAL]

[V P n (not pron)] When something happens anywhere in the world, NPR digs up an expert from someplace or other...

If you dug up an old medical book from the sixties, it would tell you that childhood leukemia is incurable.

Syn:

unearth