What does "excavate" mean?

Excavate: To form by hollowing; to shape, as a cavity, or anything that is hollow; as, to excavate a canoe, a cellar, a channel.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Engin.) To dig out and remove, as earth. The material excavated was usually sand. E. L. Corthell. Excavating pump, a kind of dredging apparatus for excavating under water, in which silt and loose material mixed with water are drawn up by a pump. Knight.

Sources