How to Use excavate in a Sentence

excavate

verb
  • It is the first site to be excavated in this area.
  • They began excavating the backyard for their new pool.
  • The excess dirt was carefully excavated.
  • They excavated an ancient city.
  • For them, the amount of hard work needed to excavate the shaft was not worth it.
    — CNN, 24 Feb. 2022
  • This year, the drought enabled the researchers to excavate far more of the city.
    — Gabe Allen, Discover Magazine, 28 June 2022
  • There’s a lot more to excavate than the couple want to believe.
    — Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2023
  • The faulty premise that my job is just excavating a street.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 19 Oct. 2023
  • So far researchers have been able to excavate much of the roundel itself.
    — Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 28 Sep. 2022
  • At the time, a group of divers discovered the wreck and applied for a French permit to excavate the site.
    — Geneva Sands, CNN, 2 Mar. 2022
  • The complaint did not say if the area was excavated or what was wrapped in the plastic.
    — Charna Flam, People.com, 13 Mar. 2025
  • The complaint did not say if the area was excavated or what was wrapped in the plastic.
    — Charna Flam, People.com, 13 Mar. 2025
  • Carter’s dream was always to excavate a single site: the Valley of the Kings.
    — Jo Marchant, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Nov. 2022
  • Daniel Fisher, co-leader of the study, helped excavate the mastodon 24 years ago.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 13 June 2022
  • The team excavated around the broken leg, leaving it on a kind of pedestal of earth.
    — Michael E. Ruane, ajc, 19 June 2018
  • The other is to excavate or dig up the ash and move it to a dry, lined landfill on higher ground.
    — Sarah Bowman, The Indianapolis Star, 11 Feb. 2021
  • Back in 1984, work on the home began with excavating a large hole in an open field.
    — David Caraccio, Sacramento Bee, 28 May 2024
  • Leatherbacks, the largest sea turtles in the world, mate at sea, then creep ashore to excavate their nests around the time when winter turns to spring.
    — Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Apr. 2020
  • The other bombs ended up in an area of the site that has not yet been excavated.
    — Fox News, 9 July 2019
  • The duo are planning to return to the hillside next summer to excavate more.
    — Timothy Bella, Washington Post, 31 Aug. 2023
  • The following summer, Lyson’s team, with help from the children, went to the site to excavate the fossil.
    — Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 June 2024
  • The thrill of the rush is what got kids on the run as their parents tried to direct them to areas not yet excavated.
    — Gloria Casas, Chicago Tribune, 18 Apr. 2025
  • Miksic worked on the shipwreck when it was first excavated in the 90s.
    — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, 17 May 2018
  • The Rams rely on their scouts to excavate late-round picks and their staff to develop them.
    — New York Times, 13 Feb. 2022
  • Dirt filled with traces of lead paint and asbestos that would need to be excavated for a new basement.
    — Mike Hendricks, Kansas City Star, 25 June 2024
  • On Friday, May 25, crews excavated an area around the small sinkhole on the north White House grounds.
    — Betsy Klein, CNN, 29 May 2018
  • Some will excavate and seek out rotten wood and the nest won’t be visible.
    — Howard Koplowitz | [email protected], al.com, 1 July 2019
  • The Witches Are Coming, excavates the corners of her brain.
    — Samantha Leach, Glamour, 11 Nov. 2019
  • To satisfy federal and state requirements to offset the filling of the coal pier channel, the joint venture plans to excavate 19 acres of land along the Jones Creek side of Sparrows Point, converting it to open water and wetlands.
    — Timothy B. Wheeler, Baltimore Sun, 22 Apr. 2025
  • Earlier in April, an archaeologist excavating the Church of the Holy Sepulchre found proof of an ancient garden at the site, consistent with biblical scripture.
    — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 19 Apr. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'excavate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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