The AI-powered English dictionary
plural shovels
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. quotations examples
It was said that such train crews kept a spare shovel on board because, on numerous occasions, the beginner had not only zealously thrown coal into the firebox but had let the shovel go as well.
1943 July and August, T. Lovatt Williams, “Some Reminiscences of the Footplate—1”, in Railway Magazine, pages 233–234
A mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function. examples
(US) A spade. examples
Short for shovel hat. examples
third-person singular simple present shovels, present participle shoveling or shovelling, simple past and past participle shoveled or shovelled
To move materials with a shovel. quotations examples
Off again, a fierce light now trailing out behind us from the open furnace door, lighting up the fireman as he shovelled more coal on to the furnace, [...].
1944 May and June, “When the Circle was Steam Operated”, in Railway Magazine, page 134
(transitive, figuratively) To move with a shoveling motion. quotations examples
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.
2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record