Word.ws English Dictionary

steam shovels

steam shovels is the plural of steam shovel.

steam shovels is the third-person singular simple present indicative of steam shovel.

Meaning of steam shovel

Noun

steam shovel (plural steam shovels)

  1. (historical) An excavating machine designed to effect a shovelling action through steam power.
    • The construction of the Ealing & South Harrow proceeded very slowly during the winter of 1898-9 but by July most of the bridges had been built and the stations started. Two steam shovels, six locomotives, and 325 men were employed.1959 September, Alan A. Jackson, “North-West from Ealing—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 608
  2. (broadly) Any excavating machine of similar design, no matter how powered.
    Synonyms:
    power shovel

See all 4 meanings of steam shovel

Forms of steam shovels

alternative formsteam-shovels

Questions about steam shovels

What is steam shovels the plural of?
Steam shovels is the plural of steam shovel.

Words near steam shovels in the dictionary

  1. steam shovel
  2. steam shoveled
  3. steam shoveling
  4. steam shovelled
  5. steam shovelling
  6. steam shovels
  7. steam table
  8. steam tables
  9. steam tractor
  10. steam tractors
  11. steam train

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: steam shovels (page history and authors); steam shovel (page history and authors). 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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Cite this entry: “steam shovels.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/steam_shovels. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.