Shovel

Definitions

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. In strict usage differentiated from a spade, which is designed solely for small-scale digging and incidental tasks such as chopping of small roots.
2. A mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function.
3. Any shovel in the above senses, or any spade.
   US, broadly, especially
4. Ellipsis of shovel hat.
   abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis

Equivalents

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.”

“No one seems to like⟳ the offer⟳, and the umpire is just coming down, when a queer old hat, something like⟳ a doctor of divinity's shovel, is chucked on to the stage⟳ […]”

CEFR level