mining

mining
    n 1: the act of extracting ores or coal etc from the earth [syn:
         {mining}, {excavation}]
    2: laying explosive mines in concealed places to destroy enemy
       personnel and equipment [syn: {mining}, {minelaying}]
    

Mine \Mine\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Mined}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Mining}.]
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   1. To dig away, or otherwise remove, the substratum or
      foundation of; to lay a mine under; to sap; to undermine;
      hence, to ruin or destroy by slow degrees or secret means.
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            They mined the walls.                 --Hayward.
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            Too lazy to cut down these immense trees, the
            spoilers . . . had mined them, and placed a quantity
            of gunpowder in the cavity.           --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
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   2. To dig into, for ore or metal.
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            Lead veins have been traced . . . but they have not
            been mined.                           --Ure.
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   3. To get, as metals, out of the earth by digging.
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            The principal ore mined there is the bituminous
            cinnabar.                             --Ure.
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Mining \Min"ing\, n. [See {Mine}, v. i.]
   The act or business of making mines or of working them.
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Mining \Min"ing\, a.
   Of or pertaining to mines; as, mining engineer; mining
   machinery; a mining region.
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   {Mining engineering}. See the Note under {Engineering}.
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85 Moby Thesaurus words for "mining":
      architecture, assembly, avulsion, building, casting, coal mining,
      composition, construction, conversion, crafting, craftsmanship,
      creation, cultivation, cutting out, deepening, depression,
      deracination, devising, digging, disentanglement, drawing,
      drawing out, dredging, drilling, elaboration, engraving,
      enucleation, eradication, erection, evolvement, evulsion,
      excavation, excision, expression, exsection, extirpation,
      extraction, extrication, fabrication, fashioning, formation,
      forming, formulation, framing, gold fever, gold mining, gold rush,
      growing, handicraft, handiwork, harvesting, indentation, lowering,
      machining, making, manufacture, manufacturing, milling, molding,
      placer claim, placer mining, prefabrication, preparation,
      pressing out, probing, processing, producing, pulling, quarrying,
      raising, refining, removal, ripping out, shaping, sinkage, sinking,
      smelting, squeezing out, strip mining, tunneling, unrooting,
      uprooting, withdrawal, workmanship, wresting out