The phrase "an attempt to dig" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing an effort or endeavor to excavate or uncover something, either literally or metaphorically.
Example: "The archaeologists made an attempt to dig at the ancient site, hoping to uncover artifacts from the past."
Alternatives: "an effort to excavate" or "a try to unearth".
Everything Cope has done, since fleeing the Top of the Pops spotlight, is an attempt to dig his way back to what goes before, what lies beneath.
Under Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat who had been the state's top law enforcement official, investigators charged that state troopers were used in an attempt to dig up dirt on a political rival of the governor's.
Lest the idea be dismissed as one man's fantasy or an attempt to dig himself out of a hole with miners, the agreement for this to be an area of special spousal interest was swiftly confirmed by the candidate herself.
"I think people need to bear in mind that my book is by no means an attempt to dig up the past," he told BBC Sport.
In an attempt to dig at the true depths of parental deception, I asked people to break down the weirdest lies their parents ever told them.
In other words: Congratulations, Republicans, you just released a budget that rewards wealthy corporate executives while blocking any attempt to dig us out of the economic catastrophe they created.
The Army Corps of Engineers are pulling out rock and dredging river bottoms in a desperate attempt to dig deeper channels to keep the critical waterborne commerce flowing to the Gulf.
But the members of the online forum Something Awful ran with it, preserving the journal entries and launching a long-running attempt to dig up the identity of the woman allegedly described.
Rescuers, mostly neighbors and local men, attempt to dig a family out of a collapsed home after a Saudi-led airstrike in the old city of Sanaa, June 12 , 2015
Also, report on the history of the United States' attempt to dig a rival hole (the Deep Crustal Drilling Program site can be found at www.icdp-online.de/html/sites/ktb/index/).de/html/sites/ktb/index/
(Though as played by Mr. Selvas, it's hard to be entirely sure how smart David is.) Mr. Pons's attempt to dig for a deeper, more refined tear-jerker is admirable, but like its title, it's a clumsy contraption.
