cave
(keɪv )
Word forms: caves , caving , caved
countable noun B1+
A cave is a large hole in the side of a cliff or hill, or one that is under the ground.
...a cave more than 1,000 feet deep.
Synonyms: hollow, cavern, grotto, den
Phrasal verbs:
cave in
1. phrasal verb
If something such as a roof or a ceiling caves in, it collapses inwards.
Part of the roof has caved in. [VERB PARTICLE]
The wall caved in to reveal a blocked-up Victorian fireplace. [VERB PARTICLE]
I had a nervous breakdown, everything just seemed to cave in on top of me. [VERB PARTICLE]
2. See also cave-in
3. phrasal verb
If you cave in, you suddenly stop arguing or resisting, especially when people put pressure on you to stop.
After a ruinous strike, the union caved in. [VERB PARTICLE]
The Prime Minister has caved in to backbench pressure. [VERB PARTICLE + to]
He's caved in on capital punishment. [VERB PARTICLE + on]
Image of cave
© Creative Family, Shutterstock
Quotations:
Caves: Usually inhabited by thieves. Always full of snakesThe Dictionary of Received Ideas
Collocations:
cave complex cave diving cave drawing cave entrance cave formations cave mouth cave temple cave tour dark cave deep cave enter a cave explore a cave hidden cave inhabit a cave lava cave limestone cave mountain cave prehistoric cave sea cave underground cave underwater cave visit a cave
Today rescue workers carried lifejackets into a command post established deep inside the cave complex.
Times, Sunday Times
The cave complex originally consisted of 108 meditation caves out of which 40 caves exist.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
This cave complex consists of five large caverns, each containing large stalactites and stalagmites.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Inside the cave complex they set up a hospital, an arsenal and a medicine depot.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It was variously described as a multi-storied cave complex harnessing hydroelectric power from mountain streams, or a lower-rise dwelling with hotel-like corridors capable of sheltering more than 1,000 people.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
At one point, he had 62 diving certifications, all at the level of an instructor, for everything from cave diving to rescue diving.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
They brought with them specialist cave diving equipment, which few conventional dive shops keep.
Times, Sunday Times
Readily available commercial scuba equipment was adapted to cave diving.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Normally, however, these are only accessible by cave diving.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
He was also a pioneer in cave diving.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
They've even found prehistoric cave drawings of it in various parts of the world.
Times, Sunday Times
Look at the animal shapes in the cave drawings to inspire you.
Times,Sunday Times
You shone your light around and the names would loom out of the darkness like cave drawings.
Times, Sunday Times
In a rock shelter approximately eight kilometres west of the town centre are a number of ancient cave drawings.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
They left behind many petroglyphs (cave drawings).
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
One of his companions climbed back to the cave entrance to raise the alarm, while the other stayed with him.
Times, Sunday Times
They had found the team almost three miles from the cave entrance.
Times, Sunday Times
By the time he reached the cave entrance to leave, he found that club members had padlocked its gate, unaware that he was still inside.
Times, Sunday Times
It was a few hundred feet farther from the cave entrance.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Plans are being put in place to continue the boat ride and have the tour exit out of the natural cave entrance.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Sometimes it's more argumentative than descriptive: 'spray-foam insulation that congealed in grotesque, snotty rivulets reminiscent of limestone cave formations'.
Times, Sunday Times
Helictites are, perhaps, the most delicate of cave formations.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
However, the guests would often damage the cave formations by taking souvenirs.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Its five halls and 400 metres of corridors offer some of the most beautiful cave formations in the country.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Stalactites, stalagmites, and other cave formations were formed from calcium carbonate left by dripping mineral water.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Above his head flocks of swifts darted in and out of the cave mouth.
ST
The bank on which they were perched was three miles from the cave mouth, and separated from it by several long stretches of flooded passageway.
Times, Sunday Times
Human occupation was limited to the cave mouth, although paintings were created throughout the length of the cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The besieged group stay in the cave until the moon sets enough to place the cave mouth in darkness.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The cave mouth faces to the east preventing the ingress of a cold north and northwest winds and allowing in the morning sun.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Originally, the entire cave temple, including the sculptures, was covered with plaster and painted.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
A small and plain cave temple close by has a sanctuary containing a linga.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
These cave temples date back to the 6th century.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
All the cave temples in the southern group are examples of one called shrines, mostly enshrining a lingam.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The outside verandas of the cave temples are rather plain, but the inner hall contains rich and prolific sculptural symbolism.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The wild cave tour takes visitors into the undeveloped parts of the cave where the most spectacular formations are found.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The cave tour features a ride on the lake in boats with electric motors.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Some of these are open to the public for cave tours.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Guided cave tours are offered at regular intervals.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
From 1992 until somewhat recently cave tours were not being held.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It's as if someone with a torch had entered a dark cave and found it filled with the ruins of a lost modern civilisation.
Times, Sunday Times
This clock would keep running even if a person were removed from the world and hidden away in a dark cave (which some dedicated researchers did to themselves years ago!).
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The losing team then have to take a leap of faith, literally, when they jump into a dark cave via a very rickety bridge and a trapeze bar.
The Sun
One day he discovered a dark cave that glowed inside from a green substance.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The team goes into the dark cave through the mouth of monstrous head.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
He had dropped 300ft into the 650ft deep cave when he realised his rope was not strong enough to hold him.
The Sun
Now, more than a century later, the 1,600-foot long, 200-foot deep cave system remains one of the island’s most popular destinations, seeing roughly 85,000 visitors each year.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
He chased it but the boar ran into a deep cave of the mountain.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The deep cave has a single entrance and features beautiful stalagmites and stalactites.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The stranger led him into a dark, deep cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
We enter a cave through a stone vestibule, whose threshold must not be touched by your feet.
The Times Literary Supplement
Visitors can enter the cave of the spring where they can be served cups of water.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
They break into the palace and enter the cave, where they find a box, which supposedly contains the book.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
He enlists a petty thief to enter the cave and retrieve it, whose attempt fails.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Once there, they would light torches and enter the cave, which had two large rooms.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Ways to feel safe in a perilous home: curl up bodily inside a book; explore a cave in a confected isle; wander through a fortress.
The Times Literary Supplement
Puzzles must be solved and monsters out-run as you explore the cave, with some attractive graphics to look at along the way.
Times, Sunday Times
Cavers began to explore the cave in 1927.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The game also features flexible events and cutscenes such as deciding whether you want to explore a cave or just turn around and walk away.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The sheriff begins to explore the cave but returns to the hole only to find the doctor's body has vanished.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Alone and lost in the desert, he comes across a mountainside where he sees a group of riders exiting a hidden cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
In a pursuit of a deer, he encounters a mass of treasure stored in a hidden cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Alone in a hidden cave, with only an old priestess for company, the two young people fall in love.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
A clue in the tale leads them to a hidden cave and the bodies of two gardeners who vanished 33 years ago.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
And the entrance to a network of hidden caves would be near the top of that list.
The Sun
I was young and reckless, unafraid of the wolves or the bears that inhabit the caves and crags of this wild land.
Times, Sunday Times
The diminished pride consisted of a female with four cubs that inhabited a cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The first settlers inhabited the cave near today's town, where 12,000-year-old items were found.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The farmers usually inhabited the caves in the vicinity.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
There were signs of cave bears, woolly rhinoceros, and mammoths having previously inhabited the cave as well.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
One of the numerous rilles in the crater's surrounding area has been found to host a probable cave skylight of a lava cave in 2009.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
A lunar lava cave potential has long been suggested and discussed in literature and thesis.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Sights include lava caves, waterfalls and trips up the dormant volcano.
Times, Sunday Times
It also has lava caves, near the track up to the summit, that are very accessible to visitors.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It was formed as a limestone cave system in the last ice age when the sea was lower.
The Sun
Stalagmites form when mineral-laden water drips onto the floor of a limestone cave.
Times, Sunday Times
Sometimes it's more argumentative than descriptive: 'spray-foam insulation that congealed in grotesque, snotty rivulets reminiscent of limestone cave formations'.
Times, Sunday Times
Historians had debated for decades whether the limestone cave was still intact.
Times, Sunday Times
It has as its centerpiece a large limestone cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Already 85 at his election, he had spent much of his life as a recluse in a mountain cave.
Christianity Today
One should set about this feasting in a cemetery or a mountain cave, in a resort of nonhuman beings or in a deserted place.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The powers that be consider him so dangerous that they banish him to a sealed-in mountain cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The other was an evil fiend in a mountain cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
When the temperature drops to 140 below zero, they take shelter in a mountain cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The earliest human stories are told in prehistoric cave paintings.
The Times Literary Supplement
Even so, when he starts waxing lyrical about these prehistoric cave paintings it's impossible not to get swept up in his excitement.
Times, Sunday Times
Prehistoric cave paintings depict a snowy owl with her chicks, and a shaman with a wolf's tail, antlers on his head, and an owl's facial mask.
Times, Sunday Times
Its special relevance comes from the fact that it was the first cave in which prehistoric cave paintings had been discovered.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Prehistoric cave dwellings have been discovered at the base of the mountain indicating habitation for over 9,000 years.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
This extraordinary inland lagoon was formed when a sea cave collapsed, leaving a network of cave tunnels that lead out to sea.
Times, Sunday Times
Coastguards battled for two hours to reach her before the tide flooded the small sea cave in which she had become trapped.
Times, Sunday Times
Explore within to find a long sea cave that pierces right through it, out to the ocean beyond.
Times, Sunday Times
There's a sea cave to play in at low tide.
Times, Sunday Times
It was probably formed where a geological fault in the limestone had created a sea cave and the roof then collapsed.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
There are six experience rooms, from a candle-lit underground cave pool to a volcanic salt bath.
The Sun
She was described as looking pale and thin after coming out from the underground cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The area also contains several sinkholes and underground cave systems, including a 38acre m2 sinkhole lake.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
While no sightings were reported on the expedition, the team found evidence of a large underground cave with air vents.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Needing humidity for the weaving his house had a special half- underground cave like area where he worked.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
A professional diver who had volunteered for the search found a body in an underwater cave beneath cliffs behind the hotel at 4.45pm yesterday.
Times, Sunday Times
How might you escape from an underwater cave with no diving equipment?
Times, Sunday Times
Guests can explore the nearby underwater cave network or kayak in the lakes.
Times, Sunday Times
Royal discovered an underwater cave containing stalactites, which could only have formed when the cave was dry some 6000 years earlier.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The diving team were also the first people to produce a spherical panorama of an underwater cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
You can visit the cave, finds from which are displayed in the adjacent museum.
Times, Sunday Times
It informs the visitors of the kinds of insects and bats they would see if they were to visit the cave.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Skunks visit a cave of bats and cross a carpet of guano to seek out the young that fall from the ceiling.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
About 3000 tourists visit the cave every year.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
They visited the caves on the first day of their honeymoon.
Times, Sunday Times
Translations:
Chinese: 洞穴
Japanese: ほら穴
- conducive
- conducive conditions
- conducive environment
- conduct
- conduct a campaign
- conduct a census
- conduct a ceremony
- conduct a class
- conduct a consultation
- conduct a funeral
- conduct a hearing
- conduct a meeting
- conduct an affair
- conduct an analysis
- conduct an assessment
- conduct an auction
- conduct an audit
- conduct an examination
- conduct an exercise
- conduct an experiment
- conduct an inspection
- conduct an orchestra
- conduct a poll
- conduct a probe
- conduct a raid