mine

An excavation from which ore or solid minerals are taken, especially one consisting of underground tunnels.

Determiner

  1. My; belonging to me.
    • Well, then, fix it up nice, waiter, and make mine baked hash an’ mashed ’taters and stewed corn and waiter!—plain white bread, no fancy rolls! - 1936 December 23, Hazel Livingston, “‘Love’s Litany’”, in Walter V. Hogan,...

    1. Used attributively after the noun it modifies.

      • […] Flesh and blood, / You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, / […] - 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio),...

    2. Used attributively before a vowel.

      • Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: / […] - 1862 February, Julia Ward Howe, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume IX, number LII, page 10:
      • 1930 Winter, Packard Motor Car Company, The Packard Magazine, Volume 9, Number 2, page 6, Mine host, it seemed, did favors for everybody...

Origin

From Middle English min, myn, from Old English mīn, from Proto-West Germanic *mīn, from Proto-Germanic *mīnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *méynos. Cognate with Saterland Frisian mien, West Frisian myn, Dutch mijn, Low German mien, German mein, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish min, Faroese and Icelandic mín.

Forms

myne

Derived

mine host

Noun Entry 2

  1. An excavation from which ore or solid minerals are taken, especially one consisting of underground tunnels.
    • Meronyms: mine shaft, mineshaft; mine car
    • This diamond comes from a mine in South Africa.
    • He came out of the coal mine with a face covered in black.

    Hypernyms: place site

  2. Any source of wealth or resources.
    • She's a mine of information about the history of mathematics.
    • To those seeking information about train services on the Continent, Cook's Continental Guide is always a mine of accurate information. - 1962 December, “Beyond the Channel: U.S.S.R.: Train speeds still rising”, in...
  3. A passage dug toward or underneath enemy lines, which is then packed with explosives.
    • The most famous mine of the American Civil War led to the Battle of the Crater.
  4. A device intended to explode when stepped upon or touched, or when approached by a ship, vehicle, or person.
    • Holonym: minefield
    • His left leg was blown off after he stepped on a mine.
    • The warship was destroyed by floating mines.

    Hypernyms: munition weapon

  5. A type of firework that explodes on the ground, shooting sparks upward.
  6. The cavity made by a caterpillar while feeding inside a leaf.
  7. A machine or network of machines used to extract units of a cryptocurrency.
    • A change to the blockchain method was contemplated to allow mines to hog less electric power.

Origin

From Middle English, from Old French mine, from Late Latin mina, from Gaulish (compare to Welsh mwyn, Irish mianach (“ore”)), from Proto-Celtic *meinis (“ore, metal”).

Forms

mines

Derived

acoustic mine antimine anti-personnel mine anti-tank mine Bangalore mine bounding mine butterfly mine coal mine coalmine countermine drift mine gold mine goldmine intermine iron mine ironmine land mine landmine leaf miner limpet mine magnetic mine megamine mine car minecar

Noun alt of, alternative

  1. Alternative form of mien.

Origin

Borrowed from French mine.

Forms

mines

Pronoun

  1. That or those belonging to me.
    • The house itself is mine, but the land is not.
    • These books are mine.
    • Ah, but how beautiful (my baby boy) is! And he is mine, mine for ever. Even if he hates me he will be mine. He cannot help it, he is made out of me; I am his father. - 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread,...

    1. Used predicatively.

    2. Used substantively, with an implied noun.

      • Mine has been a long journey.

    3. Used absolutely, set off from the sentence.

      • Mine for only a week so far, it already feels like an old friend.

    4. (informal) My house or home.

      • We had the party at mine.

    5. As double possessive.

      • This house of mine is over 100 years old.
      • You have something of mine.

Forms

mine myne

Related

Ime me myselfmemysen mymineme we us ourselvesourselfoursen oursourn our you yourselfyoursen yoursyourn your thou thee thyselftheeselfthysen thine thythine youye yourselves you ally'all you guys yous y'allselves all yours y'all's you guys' your guys' all your y'all's your all's you guys' your guys'

Derived

friend of mine I got mine mine host of mine stars o' mine the pleasure is all mine your guess is as good as mine your place or mine

Verb

  1. To remove (rock or ore) from the ground.
    • Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only place in the world where visitors can mine their own diamonds.
  2. To dig into, for ore or metal.
    • Lead veins have been traced […] but they have not been mined. - 1837, Andrew Ure, Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines:
  3. To sow mines (the explosive devices) in (an area).
    • We had to slow our advance after the enemy mined the road ahead of us.
  4. To damage (a vehicle or ship) with a mine (an explosive device).
  5. To dig a tunnel or hole; to burrow in the earth.
    • the mining cony
  6. To dig away, or otherwise remove, the substratum or foundation of; to lay a mine under; to sap; to undermine.
    • They mined the walls. - a. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge, […], published 1630, →OCLC:
    • Too lazy, perhaps, to cut [these immense trees] down, the spoilers […] had mined them, and placed a quantity of gunpowder in the cavity. - 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume...
  7. To ruin or destroy by slow degrees or secret means.
  8. To tap into.
  9. To pick one's nose.
  10. To earn new units of cryptocurrency by doing certain calculations.
    • Bitcoin supporters say that estimates of its carbon footprint are overstated. And if the computers that mine and help transact bitcoins are attached to an electric grid that uses wind and solar power, they add, mining...

    Coordinate Terms: mint

Forms

mines mining mined

Derived

demine minability minable mineable miner mining overmine premine remine