Verb

1. To dig the ground, especially with a shovel.
   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, chapter 29.

     I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my might - it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands; the wood commenced cracking about the screws; I was on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and bending down.

2. To search thoroughly and carefully for information.

   She was intensely eager to delve into the mystery of Mr. Joplin and his brief case.

3. To dig, to excavate.
   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, chapter IV.

     Let him take off his plates and delve himself, if delving must be done.