shovel
Syllables: shov·elUK/ˈʃʌv.əl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ˈʃʊv.əl/
shovel noun: 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. Also the ellipsis of shovel hat.
Noun
shovel (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. In strict usage differentiated from a spade, which is designed solely for small-scale digging and incidental tasks such as chopping of small roots.
- 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.
- Any shovel in the above senses, or any spade.
Verb
shovel (third-person singular simple present shovels, present participle (US) shoveling or (UK) shovelling, simple past and past participle (US) shoveled or (UK) shovelled)
- 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.
- To move with a shoveling motion.
- Already late for work, I shovelled breakfast into my mouth as fast as possible.
- 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
Also used as
shovel is also the ellipsis of shovel hat.
shovel meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
shovel in Hindi
- tool for moving portions of material
- बेलचा belcā, खनित्र khanitra
shovel in Marathi
- फावडा, फावडी
shovel in Urdu
- tool for moving portions of material
- بیلچہ belca
shovel in Bengali
- বেলচা
More languagesFewer languages
- shovel in Telugu
- పార pāra
- shovel in Kannada
- ಸಲಿಕೆ
- shovel in Punjabi
- ਬੇਲਚਾ, ਇੱਕ ਬੇਲਚਾ, ਫਾਵਡ਼ਾ
- shovel in Gujarati
- પાવડો, ફાવડો
- shovel in Odia
- ବେଲଚା
- shovel in Nepali
- बेल्चा belcā
- shovel in Tagalog
- pala, pumala
- shovel in Arabic
- مِجْرَفَة mijrafa, مِجْرَاف mijrāf, مجرفة
- shovel in Malay
- spade, penyodok
- shovel in Indonesian
- pengki
- shovel in Persian
- بیل bil
- shovel in Thai
- พลั่ว plûua
- shovel in Vietnamese
- mai, xẻng
- shovel in Myanmar
- ဂေါ် gau
Examples of shovel in a sentence
- I don't mind shoveling, but using a pickaxe hurts my back terribly.
- 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 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:
Forms of shovel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | shovels |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | shovels |
| present participle US | shoveling |
| present participle UK | shovelling |
| past participle US | shoveled |
| past US | shoveled |
| past participle UK | shovelled |
| past UK | shovelled |
Origin of shovel
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”). Compare typologically Russian пешня (pešnja) (akin to пиха́ть (pixátʹ)), сово́к (sovók) (akin to сова́ть (sovátʹ)).
Words formed from shovel
- banker's shovel
- call a shovel a shovel
- call a spade a shovel
- call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel
- coal shovel
- fire shovel hat
- mechanical shovel
- picks and shovels
- power shovel
- put to bed with a shovel
- shot with a shovel
- shovelbill
- shovelbum
- shoveler
- shovelfish
- shovelful
- shovel-handed
- shovelhead
- shovellike
- shovelmaker
- shovelmaking
- shovelman
- shovelnose
- shovel-nosed
- shovel-nosed sturgeon
- shovelomics
- shovel-ready
- shovel test
- shovelware
- sleigh shovel
- snow shovel
- snow sled shovel
- steam shovel
- winnowing shovel
- winnowing-shovel
- reshovel
- shovellable
- shovel out
- shovel up
- unshoveled
- unshovelled
Phrases with shovel
- shovel hat
- shovel hats
- shovel ready
- shovel tests
- calls a spade a shovel
- called a spade a shovel
- calls a shovel a shovel
- called a shovel a shovel
- calling a spade a shovel
- calling a shovel a shovel
- calls a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel
- called a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with shovel
Questions about shovel
- What does shovel mean?
- Shovel means 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.
- What is shovel in Hindi?
- Shovel in Hindi is बेलचा (belcā), खनित्र (khanitra). See Shovel meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use shovel in a sentence?
- I don't mind shoveling, but using a pickaxe hurts my back terribly.
- What part of speech is shovel?
- Shovel can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce shovel?
- Shovel is pronounced /ˈʃʌv.əl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of shovel?
- The plural of shovel is shovels.
Words near shovel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shovel (page history and authors); shovel (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shovel (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shovel (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shovel (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shovel (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shovel (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-shovel.ogg.
Cite this entry: “shovel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shovel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.