cave
part of speech
noun (cave, caves); verb (cave in, caves in, caved in, caving in)
meaning for a pupil
1) A cave is a large hole in the side of a hill or cliff or under the ground. tree →
2) To cave in is to fall down inwards, like a roof. tree →
3) To cave in can also mean to stop arguing and agree because of pressure. tree →
sense in the lessons
In geography and science lessons caves form when water slowly dissolves rock such as limestone; stalactites hang down and stalagmites grow up. Bats and early people lived in caves; cave paintings show ancient art. In safety lessons: never go into caves without an adult and guide, because of floods, dark, and falls. Phrases: cave in, cave painting, cave man, cave explorer.
examples
- Bats sleep in the cave. tree →
- Early people painted animals on cave walls. tree →
- Water made this cave over thousands of years. tree →
- Don't go into caves without a guide. tree →
- The roof of the old mine caved in. tree →
- We used torches to explore the cave. tree →
- After an hour of begging, Dad caved in and bought the ice cream. tree →
- He strode resolutely into the cave. tree →
note
Countable noun (caves). Regular verb (caved). Memory trick: stalactites hang tight from the ceiling (c), stalagmites grow up from the ground (g). Exploring caves for sport is called caving (UK) or spelunking (US).
In the corpora
- In some caves dwarf crocodiles have turned orange, possibly from living among bat droppings.
- Ringed seals dig snow caves on the ice to hide their pups and keep breathing holes open by scratching the ice with strong claws.
- Cave swiftlets are among the very few birds that echolocate, and some swiftlets build nests from their own saliva.
- Cave crickets have very long legs and feelers because in the dark touch is more useful than sight.
- Hunters lived there too: cave lions, cave hyenas that dragged bones to their dens, and people.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «cave» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.