DIVING

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does diving mean? 

• DIVING (noun)
  The noun DIVING has 2 senses:

1. an athletic competition that involves diving into water

2. a headlong plunge into water

  Familiarity information: DIVING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIVING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An athletic competition that involves diving into water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

diving; diving event

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

match (a formal contest in which two or more persons or teams compete)

Holonyms ("diving" is a part of...):

swim meet; swimming meet (a swimming competition between two or more teams)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A headlong plunge into water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

dive; diving

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

swim; swimming (the act of swimming)

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

belly flop; belly flopper; belly whop; belly whopper (a dive in which the abdomen bears the main force of impact with the water)

cliff diving (diving into the water from a steep overhanging cliff)

flip (a dive in which the diver somersaults before entering the water)

full gainer; gainer (a dive in which the diver throws the feet forward to complete a full backward somersault and enters the water feet first and facing away from the diving board)

half gainer (a dive in which the diver throws the feet forward and up to complete a half backward somersault and enters the water facing the diving board)

jackknife (a dive in which the diver bends to touch the ankles before straightening out)

swallow dive; swan dive (a dive in which the diver arches the back with arms outstretched before entering the water)

Derivation:

dive (plunge into water)

 Context examples 

"Are you going?" demanded Jo, diving for the pillow.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

His mind flashed on to his "Pearl-diving."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

You will be relieved to hear Mercury will go direct on March 9, so leave a space of several days, and then begin diving into your most pressing endeavors again.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Here and there they rushed with wild screams and curses, diving under the sail, crouching behind booms, huddling into corners like rabbits when the ferrets are upon them, as helpless and as hopeless.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This can happen if you are flying in an airplane, driving in the mountains, or scuba diving.

(Barotrauma, NIH)

Snapping away with a camera when he ought to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures.

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

First, she lost in the mining way, and then she lost in the diving way—fishing up treasure, or some such Tom Tiddler nonsense, explained my aunt, rubbing her nose; and then she lost in the mining way again, and, last of all, to set the thing entirely to rights, she lost in the banking way.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Following the "Pearl-diving," he wrote an article on the sea as a career, another on turtle-catching, and a third on the northeast trades.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The heat into which he has been continually putting himself; and the distracted and impetuous manner in which he has been diving, day and night, among papers and books; to say nothing of the immense number of letters he has written me between this house and Mr. Wickfield's, and often across the table when he has been sitting opposite, and might much more easily have spoken; is quite extraordinary.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Only the robber-publications seemed to remain actively in business, and to them Martin disposed of all his early efforts, such as Pearl-diving, The Sea as a Career, Turtle-catching, and The Northeast Trades.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)