dive

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /daɪv/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪv

Verb

dive (third-person singular simple present dives, present participle diving, simple past dived or (chiefly U.S. and Canada) dove, past participle dived or (chiefly U.S. and Canada, nonstandard) dove or (dialectal) doven)

1. (intransitive) To swim under water.
2. (intransitive) To jump into water head-first.
   • 1826, Richard Whately, Elements of Logic:

     It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men have dived for them.

3. (intransitive) To jump headfirst toward the ground or into another substance.

   to dive into home plate

4. (intransitive) To descend sharply or steeply.
   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 49:

     [the Hammersmith & City at Paddington]: There it dived underground, eventually enabling its train services to run over, and be entangled with, the easterly extensions of the Metropolitan and the District.

5. (intransitive) To lose altitude quickly by pointing downwards, as with a bird or aircraft.
6. (intransitive, especially with in) To undertake with enthusiasm.

   She dove right in and started making improvements.

7. (sports) To deliberately fall down after a challenge, imitating being fouled, in the hope of getting one's opponent penalised.
8. (transitive) To cause to descend, dunk; to plunge something into water.
   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     To dive an infant either thrice or but once in Baptism

9. (transitive) To explore by diving; to plunge into.
   • 1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning:

     The Curtii bravely dived the gulf of flame.

   • 1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “May-Day”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 20:

     The green lane is the school-boy's friend, / Low leaves his quarrel apprehend, / […] / The brimming brook invites a leap, / He dives the hollow, climbs the steep.

10. (intransitive, figuratively) To plunge or to go deeply into any subject, question, business, etc.; to penetrate; to explore.
    • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

      dive into the Concerns of all about them

Noun

dive (plural dives)

1. A jump or plunge into water.

   the dive of a hawk after prey

2. A headfirst jump toward the ground or into another substance.
   • 2016 August 16, Kate Samuelson, “Here Are Other Athletes Who Famously Won with a Dive”, in Time‎:

     The 24-year-old Brazilian hurdler Joao Vitor de Oliveira progressed to the Rio competition’s semi-finals by executing a Superman-style dive headfirst over the finishing line – beating South Africa’s Antonio Alkana by one hundredth of a second.

3. A downward swooping motion.
4. A swim under water.
5. A decline.
6. (slang) A seedy bar, nightclub, etc.
7. (aviation) Aerial descent with the nose pointed down.
8. (sports) A deliberate fall after a challenge.

Derived terms

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdiːveɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

dive

1. plural of diva

Noun

dive (plural dives)

1. Obsolete form of daeva.