digger
/ˈdɪɡɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.17 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
One who digs.
noun
A member of any Native American people in the western United States, especially Native Californians.
American usage; Dated; Offensive; Slang
Example Sentences
- "The cables are placed from 16 in. to 2 ft. down, and to save time and labour use was made of a mechanical digger lent by the Swedish State Railways."
- "The post hole digger did look ancient. I was pretty certain myself that it hadn′t dug any holes for a long, long time."
- "You′ve tried the supposedly sure method of squirting the digger with water from a hose, and that hasn′t worked.[…]This step will discourage 99 percent of the diggers."
- "Most retrievers are not inveterate diggers — that′s a trait usually reserved for other breeds like wire-haired terriers and schnauzers."
- "A successful Australian digger — successful, not merely in siftings and washings, but bearing the title, and its best credentials, of a “nuggetter” − came down from Forest Creek recently and took up his abode in a low lodging-house in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne."
- "Proofs of the presence of the white man are found all over the Territory in the shape of old bouilli tins, &c., and often when out after a strayed horse, I have imagined myself to be in wilds untrodden except by the foot of the blackfellow, but the sight of an unassuming empty sardine tin would remind me that the ubiquitous digger had been there first."
Etymology
From Middle English dyggar, equivalent to dig + -er. In the sense of "Australian soldier", attributed to the considerable time that soldiers spent digging trenches during World War I.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɪɡɚ/
- British English: /ˈdɪɡə/
Usage
- Slang
- Australian usage
- Obsolete
- Informal
- Dated
- American usage
- Offensive
- Derogatory
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Military.