BURROW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does burrow mean? 

• BURROW (noun)
  The noun BURROW has 1 sense:

1. a hole made by an animal, usually for shelter

  Familiarity information: BURROW used as a noun is very rare.

• BURROW (verb)
  The verb BURROW has 1 sense:

1. move through by or as by digging

  Familiarity information: BURROW used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BURROW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A hole made by an animal, usually for shelter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

burrow; tunnel

Hypernyms ("burrow" is a kind of...):

hole; hollow (a depression hollowed out of solid matter)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "burrow"):

rabbit warren; warren (a series of connected underground tunnels occupied by rabbits)

Derivation:

burrow (move through by or as by digging)

• BURROW (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they burrow    ... he / she / it burrows   
Past simple: burrowed   
Past participle: burrowed   
-ing form: burrowing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move through by or as by digging

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

burrow; tunnel

Context example:

burrow through the forest

Hypernyms (to "burrow" is one way to...):

cut into; delve; dig; turn over (turn up, loosen, or remove earth)

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

burrow (a hole made by an animal, usually for shelter)

 Context examples 

Any of several small, burrowing, chiefly nocturnal mammals with body covered with strong horny plates.

(Armadillo, NCI Thesaurus)

Any member of four genera of the rodent family Cricetidae; short-tailed Old World burrowing rodents with large cheek pouches.

(Hamster, NCI Thesaurus)

The researchers suspected that mussels, by paving the marsh surface with their ribbed shells, attracted burrowing crabs that excavate underground water storage compartments.

(Biodiversity in salt marshes builds climate resilience, NSF)

When light and electric fields were blocked, starved worms burrowed down, while well-fed worms migrated up.

(Magnetic Field Sensor Unearthed in Worms, NIH)

The only remaining point was what they were burrowing for.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He studied the wood-mice and tried to dig them out of their burrows; and he learned much about the ways of moose-birds and woodpeckers.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

NASA's InSight lander will include a heat probe that will burrow down as far as 16 feet (5 meters) below the Martian surface.

(Possible Subsurface Lake near Martian South Pole, NASA)

Her brother was burrowing for frozen pay-streaks in that far country, and so she constituted herself an authority on the subject.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The negro had burrowed down into his hiding-place upon the barrow, where he might have lain snug enough, had it not been for the red gear upon his head.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A door suddenly flew open out of what appeared to be solid wall at the end of the corridor, and a little, wizened man darted out of it, like a rabbit out of its burrow.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)