Definition
nounA 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.
nounA mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function.
Sentence Examples
They were clearing the snow from the sidewalk with a shovel.
It'll take some time to shovel all the snow off the roof.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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 […]"
— 1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:
"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:
"The coal is then transferred to broad-gauge wagons for transport to Dublin. The transhipment is a rather laborious business, the coal being shovelled by hand from one wagon to another."
— 1951 May, R. K. Kirkland, “The Cavan & Leitrim Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 343:
"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: