shovel

CEFRB1

/ˈʃʌv.əl/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A tool with a wide blade for moving earth or snow.

  2. 02

    verb

    To move earth or snow using a shovel.

Examples

  • It'll take some time to shovel all the snow off the roof.

  • They were clearing the snow from the sidewalk with a shovel.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • [ˈʃʌv.ɫ̩]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function.

  2. Any shovel in the above senses, or any spade.

  3. 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.

More examples

In context

  • 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.

  • The workers were shovelling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

He used a blank to dig a hole for the new fence post.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English schovele, schovel, showell, shole (> English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English scofl (“shovel”), from Proto-Germanic *skuflō, *skūflō (“shovel”), equivalent to shove + -el (instrumental/agent suffix). 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”), Faroese skupla (“shovel”), Icelandic skófla (“shovel”), Norwegian skyfle (“shovel”), skyffel (“shovel, hoe”), Swedish skyffel, skovel (“shovel”).