All 4 Uses of
excavate
in
Treasure Island
- Before us was a great excavation, not very recent, for the sides had fallen in and grass had sprouted on the bottom.
Chpt 32 *excavation = hole dug into the earth
- They began to scramble out of the excavation, darting furious glances behind them.†
Chpt 33
- Merry tumbled head foremost into the excavation; the man with the bandage spun round like a teetotum and fell all his length upon his side, where he lay dead, but still twitching; and the other three turned and ran for it with all their might.†
Chpt 33
- Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the island, had found the skeleton—it was he that had rifled it; he had found the treasure; he had dug it up (it was the haft of his pick-axe that lay broken in the excavation); he had carried it on his back, in many weary journeys, from the foot of the tall pine to a cave he had on the two-pointed hill at the north-east angle of the island, and there it had lain stored in safety since two months before the arrival of the HISPANIOLA.†
Chpt 33
Definition:
-
(excavate) to dig outin various senses, including:
- remove or lay bare -- as when removing top soil to lay a foundation
- find or uncover -- as at an archaeological site
- remove a part -- as a tooth from the gum that surrounds it