mine

Alternative forms

• myne (obsolete)

Pronoun

mine (plural mine)

1. That or those belonging to me.
   1. Used predicatively.

      The house itself is mine, but the land is not.

      These books are mine.

      • 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread , chapter 7:

        "Ah, but how beautiful (my baby boy) is! And he is mine, mine for ever. Even if he hates me he will be mine. He cannot help it, he is made out of me; I am his father."

   2. Used substantively, with an implied noun.

      Mine has been a long journey.

   3. Used absolutely, set off from the sentence.

      Mine for only a week so far, it already feels like an old friend.

   4. (informal) My house or home.

      We had the party at mine.

   5. As double possessive.

      This house of mine is over 100 years old.

Determiner

mine

1. (archaic) My; belonging to me.
   1. Used attributively after the noun it modifies.
      • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

        […] Flesh and blood, / You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, / […]

   2. Used attributively before a vowel.
      • 1862 February, Julia Ward Howe, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume IX, number LII, page 10:

        Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: / […]

      • 1930 Winter, Packard Motor Car Company, The Packard Magazine, Volume 9, Number 2, page 6,

        Mine host, it seemed, did favors for everybody...

Noun

mine (plural mines)

2. An excavation from which ore or solid minerals are taken, especially one consisting of underground tunnels.

   Hyponyms: coal mine, coalmine; drift mine; gold mine, goldmine; open-pit mine; salt mine; strip-mine, strip mine; iron mine; powder mine; silver mine; tin mine; urban mine

   Meronyms: mine shaft, mineshaft; mine car

   This diamond comes from a mine in South Africa.

   He came out of the coal mine with a face covered in black.

   Most coal and ore comes from open-pit mines nowadays.

4. (figurative) Any source of wealth or resources.

   She's a mine of information about the history of mathematics.

   • 1962 December, “Beyond the Channel: U.S.S.R.: Train speeds still rising”, in Modern Railways, page 418:

     To those seeking information about train services on the Continent, Cook's Continental Guide is always a mine of accurate information.

6. (military) A passage dug toward or underneath enemy lines, which is then packed with explosives.

   The most famous mine of the American Civil War led to the Battle of the Crater.

8. (military) A device intended to explode when stepped upon or touched, or when approached by a ship, vehicle, or person.

   Hyponyms: Bangalore mine; bounding mine; butterfly mine; land mine, landmine; limpet mine; magnetic mine; naval mine; proximity mine; proxy mine

   Holonym: minefield

   His left leg was blown off after he stepped on a mine.

   The warship was destroyed by floating mines.

   • 1940 May, “Overseas Railways: Icebound Denmark”, in Railway Magazine, page 302:

     Pack ice, at times mounting to a height of 35 ft., snow, fog, and floating mines all played their part in the disorganisation of railway services, and most of the train ferry services were completely suspended for a month or more; [...].

10. (pyrotechnics) A type of firework that explodes on the ground, shooting sparks upward.
12. (entomology) The cavity made by a caterpillar while feeding inside a leaf.
14. (computing) A machine or network of machines used to extract units of a cryptocurrency.

    A change to the blockchain method was contemplated to allow mines to hog less electric power.

Verb

mine (third-person singular simple present mines, present participle mining, simple past and past participle mined)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To remove (rock or ore) from the ground.

   Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only place in the world where visitors can mine their own diamonds.

2. To dig into, for ore or metal.
   • 1837, Andrew Ure, Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines:

     Lead veins have been traced […] but they have not been mined.

3. (transitive) To sow mines (the explosive devices) in (an area).

   We had to slow our advance after the enemy mined the road ahead of us.

4. (transitive) To damage (a vehicle or ship) with a mine (an explosive device).
5. (intransitive) To dig a tunnel or hole; to burrow in the earth.

   the mining cony

6. To dig away, or otherwise remove, the substratum or foundation of; to lay a mine under; to sap; to undermine.
   • a. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge, […], published 1630, →OCLC:

     They mined the walls.

   • 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh:  […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

     Too lazy, perhaps, to cut [these immense trees] down, the spoilers […] had mined them, and placed a quantity of gunpowder in the cavity.

7. (by extension, figurative) To ruin or destroy by slow degrees or secret means.
8. (by extension, figurative) To tap into.
9. (slang) To pick one's nose.
11. (cryptocurrencies) To earn new units of cryptocurrency by doing certain calculations.

    Coordinate term: mint

    • 2021 March 9, Andrew Ross Sorkin, “Bitcoin's Climate Problem”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

      Bitcoin supporters say that estimates of its carbon footprint are overstated. And if the computers that mine and help transact bitcoins are attached to an electric grid that uses wind and solar power, they add, mining and using it will become cleaner over time.

Noun

mine (plural mines)

1. Alternative form of mien

Inflection

See also