Shovel

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈʃʌvÉ™l/
• Rhymes: -ÊŒvÉ™l

Origin

From Middle English shovele, schovel, showell, shoule, shole (>

English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English scofl ("shovel"), from Proto-Germanic *skuflō, *skūflō ("shovel"), equivalent to shove + -el. Cognate with Scots shuffle, shule, shuil ("shovel"), Saterland Frisian Sköifel ("shovel"), West Frisian skoffel, schoffel ("hoe, spade, shovel"), Dutch schoffel ("spade, hoe"), Low German Schüfel, Schuffel ("shovel"), German Schaufel ("shovel"), Danish skovl ("shovel"), Swedish skyffel, skovel ("shovel"), Icelandic skófla ("shovel").

Full definition of shovel

Noun

1. A hand tool with a handle, used for moving portions of material such as earth, snow, and grain from one place to another, with some forms also used for digging. Not to be confused with a spade, which is designed solely for small-scale digging and incidental tasks such as chopping of small roots.
2. (US) A spade.

Derived terms

Verb

1. To move materials with a shovel.The workers were shovelling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.After the blizzard, we shoveled the driveway for the next two days.I don't mind shoveling, but using a pickaxe hurts my back terribly.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To move with a shoveling motion.
• 2011, December 29, Keith Jackson, SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0, The keeper then seemed to claw it out with fabulous reflexes only for TV replays to show the ball had most probably crossed the line before Forster had shovelled it away.

Related terms

• shove

Anagrams

• hovels