Meaning & use
digs
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Meanings
nounplural
A rented room or small flat where someone lives, especially a student or worker.
Grammar: Always plural, though it may mean one room: my digs are small.
Patterns
- live in digs
- find digs
He found digs near the university.
Her digs were cold and damp.
The actors stayed in cheap digs on tour.
nounusually pluralinformal
Unkind remarks aimed at someone.
Grammar: Often 'take digs at someone'.
Patterns
- take a dig at someone
She kept taking digs at his cooking.
The speech included a few digs at the opposition.
nounplural
Places where archaeologists excavate.
Grammar: Plural of dig.
The students spent summer on digs in Greece.
Several digs revealed Roman coins.
Common combinations
- student digs
- Student digs are often cramped.
- in digs
- He lived in digs for a year.
- find digs
- They needed to find digs quickly.
- take digs at
- Brothers love to take digs at each other.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
Commonly confused: digs or dig?
digs vs dig
Singular dig means an excavation or a nasty remark; the housing meaning is only plural.
Practice
When I first moved to London for work, I lived in cheap ___ near the station.
Choose one answer.
Digs is the British informal word for rented lodgings and is always plural. The other options are not used this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “digs”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.