An artificial cave.
1860. When you have built splendid habitations, be as willing to leave them as you would to leave a dug-out.—Brigham Young, June 9: ‘Journal of Discourses,’ viii. 293.
1881. Instead of “dug-outs” on the prairies, he found the farmers living in large, handsome frame houses.—Chicago Times, April 16. (N.E.D.)
1885. We’ve got a gallon of whisky good enough for an emperor in our dug-out, an’ we don’t want any of your molasses and water.—Admiral D. D. Porter, ‘Incidents of the Civil War,’ p. 82.
1888. The roof of a flat dug-out is level with the earth, and as no grass consents to grow in these temporary villages, there is nothing to distinguish the upturned soil that has been used as a covering for the beams of the roof of a dwelling from any of the rest of the immediate vicinity…. These Plainsmen all had “dug-outs” as places of retreat in case of fire.—Mrs. Custer, ‘Tenting on the Plains,’ pp. 605, 608.
1888. The sirocco winds drove the sands of the desolate desert into the dug-outs that served for the habitation of officers and men.—Id., p. 687.
