trowel
/ˈtɹaʊ.əl/
trowel noun: a mason’s tool, used in spreading and dressing mortar, and breaking bricks to shape them.
Noun
trowel (plural trowels)
Verb
trowel (third-person singular simple present trowels, present participle (US) troweling or (UK) trowelling, simple past and past participle (US) troweled or (UK) trowelled)
- To apply (a substance) with a trowel.
- He troweled the coarse mix with a twist, leaving a pattern of arcs.
- To pass over with a trowel.
- Most finish coats are troweled smooth, but sometimes you will have to add cosmetic touches to make the patch match the surrounding plaster, texturing the surface randomly or uniformly with any of a variety of tools, ranging from sponges to special trowels.1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 26
- To apply something heavily or unsubtly.
- The whole Planet of the Apes set-up has been ripe for metaphor – from slavery and Afro-American revolution to European conquest of the Americas, even the war on terror. But mercifully, there's no big subtext being troweled on here.2014 July 1, Steve Rose, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: a primate scream - first look review”, in The Guardian
trowel meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Telugu
trowel in Tamil
- கொல்லறு, சாந்தகப்பை, கொல்லா அரம், அகப்பை, மண்வெட்டி
trowel in Marathi
- a trowel
- करणी karaṇī
trowel in Urdu
- کرنی, کھرپی
trowel in Telugu
- a trowel
- తాపి tāpi
More languagesFewer languages
- trowel in Malayalam
- മേസ്തിരിക്കരണ്ടി, കുമ്മായക്കരണ്ടി
- trowel in Kannada
- ಕರಣೆ, ಎಬ್ಬಿಗೆ
- trowel in Punjabi
- ਕਾਂਡੀ kāṇḍī, ਕਰੰਡੀ karaṇḍī
- trowel in Sinhala
- හැන්ද hænda
- trowel in Assamese
- খন্তি khonti
- trowel in Tagalog
- dulos
- trowel in Arabic
- مِجْرَفَة mijrafa, مَالَج mālaj, مِنْقَار minqār
- trowel in Malay
- kulir, sudip, penyodok
- trowel in Indonesian
- sekop
- trowel in Persian
- ماله mâle, انداوه andâve, بیلچه bilče
- trowel in Vietnamese
- bay
Examples of trowel in a sentence
- Drag the trowel through the plaster to texture the wall.
- Réné came on quietly, his trowel in one hand, some auricula roots in the other.
- He was now crotched down on his knees, diligently digging at a plant, a trowel now in his hand.
Forms of trowel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | trowels |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | trowels |
| present participle US | troweling |
| present participle UK | trowelling |
| past participle US | troweled |
| past US | troweled |
| past participle UK | trowelled |
| past UK | trowelled |
Origin of trowel
From Middle English trowell, trouel, truel, from Middle French truelle, from Late Latin truella, from Classical Latin trulla, the diminutive of trua (“ladle”). Doublet of trullo.
Words formed from trowel
Phrases with trowel
Words that rhyme with trowel
Questions about trowel
- What does trowel mean?
- Trowel means a mason’s tool, used in spreading and dressing mortar, and breaking bricks to shape them.
- What is trowel in Tamil?
- Trowel in Tamil is கொல்லறு, சாந்தகப்பை, கொல்லா அரம். See Trowel meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is trowel?
- Trowel can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce trowel?
- Trowel is pronounced /ˈtɹaʊ.əl/.
- What is the plural of trowel?
- The plural of trowel is trowels.
Words near trowel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: trowel (page history and authors); trowel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); करणी (Marathi) (page history and authors); trowel (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); తాపి (Telugu) (page history and authors); trowel (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); trowel (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); හැන්ද (Sinhala) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-trowel.ogg, en-uk-trowel.ogg.
Cite this entry: “trowel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trowel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.