cave / keɪv / Show Spelled Pronunciation [ keyv ] Show IPA noun, verb, caved, cav⋅ing. –noun 1. a hollow in the earth, esp. one opening more or less horizontally into a hill, mountain, etc.
2. a storage cellar, esp. for wine.
3. English History .
–verb (used with object) 5. Mining . a. to cause (overlying material) to fall into a stope, sublevel, or the like.
b. to cause (supports, as stulls or sets) to collapse beneath overlying material.
c. to fill (a stope or the like) with caved-in material: sub-level caving.
–verb (used without object) —Verb phrase 7. cave in, b. to cause to fall in or collapse.
c. Informal . The opposition caved in before our superior arguments.
Origin: 1175–1225; ME < OF < LL
cava (fem. sing.), L
cava, neut. pl. of
cavum hole, n. use of neut. of
cavus hollow
Related forms: cavelike, adjective
Science Dictionary
cave Pronunciation Key
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Idioms & Phrases
cave in
Fall in, collapse, as in The earthquake made the walls cave in . [Early 1700s]
Give in, admit defeat, as in The prosecutor's questions soon made the witness cave in . [Early 1800s]
Collapse, faint, or die from exhaustion, as in After a twenty-mile hike I caved in . [Mid-1800s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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[keyv-in] 
