Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - dig up

1. If you dig up something, you remove it from the ground where it has been buried or planted. You would have to dig up the plant yourself... Dig it up once the foliage has died down. PHRASAL VERB: V P n (not pron), V n P 2. If you dig up an area of land, you dig holes in it. Yesterday they continued the search, digging up the back yard of a police station. PHRASAL VERB: V P n (not pron), also V n P 3. If you dig up information or facts, you discover something that has not previously been widely known. Managers are too expensive and important to spend time digging up market information... His description fits perfectly the evidence dug up by Clyde. = unearth PHRASAL VERB: V P n (not pron), V-ed P, also V n P