DEFINITIONnouna natural underground chamber in a hillside or cliff.
verb [ no obj. ]1 Brit.explore caves as a sport.2 US short for cave in below.
PHRASAL VERBScave in (or cave something in )(with reference to a roof or similar structure) subside or collapse, or cause something to do this: the tunnel walls caved in | storms caved the roof in. Len's club would have caved his skull in. •yield or submit under pressure: the manager caved in to his demands.
DERIVATIVEScave-like adjective,caver noun
ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French, from Latin cava, from cavus ‘hollow’ (compare with cavern). The usage cave in may be from the synonymous dialect expression calve in, influenced by obsolete cave‘excavate, hollow out’.
exclamation Brit. school slang, datedlook out!
PHRASES
keep cave act as lookout.
ORIGIN Latin, imperative of cavere ‘beware’.
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