Excavate \Ex"ca*vate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Excavated; p. pr. & vb. n. Excavating.]

[L. excavatus, p. p. of excavare to excavate; ex out + cavare to make hollow, cavus hollow. See Cave.]

1. To hollow out; to form cavity or hole in; to make hollow by cutting, scooping, or digging; as, to excavate a ball; to excavate the earth.

2. To form by hollowing; to shape, as a cavity, or anything that is hollow; as, to excavate a canoe, a cellar, a channel.

3. (Engin.) To dig out and remove, as earth.

The material excavated was usually sand. --E. L. Corthell.

Excavating pump, a kind of dredging apparatus for excavating under water, in which silt and loose material mixed with water are drawn up by a pump. --Knight.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)