MINE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mine mean? 

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

1. excavation in the earth from which ores and minerals are extracted

2. explosive device that explodes on contact; designed to destroy vehicles or ships or to kill or maim personnel

  Familiarity information: MINE used as a noun is rare.

• MINE (verb)
  The verb MINE has 2 senses:

1. get from the earth by excavation

2. lay mines

  Familiarity information: MINE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MINE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Excavation in the earth from which ores and minerals are extracted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

excavation (a hole in the ground made by excavating)

Meronyms (parts of "mine"):

mineshaft (excavation consisting of a vertical or sloping passageway for finding or mining ore or for ventilating a mine)

shaft (a long vertical passage sunk into the earth, as for a mine or tunnel)

adit (a nearly horizontal passage from the surface into a mine)

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

coal mine; coalpit (a mine where coal is dug from the ground)

copper mine (a mine where copper is dug from the ground)

gold mine; goldmine (a mine where gold ore is found)

salt mine (a mine where salt is dug)

silver mine (a mine where silver ore is dug)

strip mine (an open mine (usually for coal) where the seams run close to the surface)

sulfur mine; sulphur mine (a mine where sulphur is dug from the ground)

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

colliery; pit (a workplace consisting of a coal mine plus all the buildings and equipment connected with it)

Derivation:

mine (get from the earth by excavation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Explosive device that explodes on contact; designed to destroy vehicles or ships or to kill or maim personnel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

explosive device (device that bursts with sudden violence from internal energy)

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

floating mine; marine mine (an explosive mine designed to destroy ships that bump into it)

booby trap; ground-emplaced mine; land mine (an explosive mine hidden underground; explodes when stepped on or driven over)

Derivation:

mine (lay mines)

• MINE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they mine    ... he / she / it mines   
Past simple: mined   
Past participle: mined   
-ing form: mining   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Get from the earth by excavation

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Context example:

mine ores and metals

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

exploit; tap (draw from; make good use of)

"Mine" entails doing...:

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

Domain category:

excavation; mining (the act of extracting ores or coal etc from the earth)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "mine"):

strip mine; surface-mine; surface mine (extract (ore) from a strip-mine)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

mine (excavation in the earth from which ores and minerals are extracted)

miner (laborer who works in a mine)

mining (the act of extracting ores or coal etc from the earth)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lay mines

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Context example:

The Vietnamese mined Cambodia

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

reenforce; reinforce (make stronger)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "mine"):

countermine (destroy enemy mines with one's own mines)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

mine (explosive device that explodes on contact; designed to destroy vehicles or ships or to kill or maim personnel)

mining (laying explosive mines in concealed places to destroy enemy personnel and equipment)

 Context examples 

“You need not concern yourself about that,” answered the tailor, “they have not bent one hair of mine.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Your food is mine, and your drink is mine, and your sleep is mine, and all you’ve to do is just what you are told.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Put one in mine then, that I wish all my curls cut off, and given round to my friends.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I would mine eyes were better.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mine is to begin with hack-work and develop into an able author.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I am glad to know that my mother cried too, and that I felt her heart beat against mine.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"Because I'm buying. Here's your money. The dog's mine."

(White Fang, by Jack London)

"Miss Ingram is mine, of course," said he: afterwards he named the two Misses Eshton, and Mrs. Dent.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Processed or unprocessed substances obtained from animal, plant, microorganism and mining source that provide nutrients for living organisms to maintain biological processes or functions.

(Food or Food Product, NCI Thesaurus)

I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me, whose eyes would reply to mine.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)