different between backhoe vs shovel

English

Etymology

From back +? hoe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bæk.h??/

Noun

backhoe (plural backhoes)

1. A piece of excavating equipment consisting of a digging bucket or scoop on the end of an articulated arm, drawn backwards to move earth.
2. (chiefly US, Canada, Australia) A multi-purpose tractor with a front-mounted loading bucket and a rear-mounted digging bucket.
   • 1967 June, Charles E. Rhine, How to Rent a Backhoe, Popular Science, page 149,

     The backhoe is only one type of heavy equipment for rent. […] I heard about a couple of tool-rental outfits near Chicago that were doing a brisk business renting backhoes and other heavy equipment to homeowners

   • 2010, Robert Day, Foundation Engineering Handbook, 2nd edition, page 2.49,

     Backhoe pits and trenches are an economical means of performing subsurface exploration. The backhoe can quickly excavate the trench that can then be used to observe and test the in situ soil (see Fig. 2.29).

Synonyms

• (multi-purpose): backhoe loader, loader excavator, backhoe endloader
• (digger): excavator

Derived terms

• backhoe loader

Translations

See also

• bobcat
• excavator
• front-end loader
• JCB

Verb

backhoe (third-person singular simple present backhoes, present participle backhoeing, simple past and past participle backhoed)

1. To excavate using such equipment.

Further reading

• Backhoe loader on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

English

Etymology

From Middle English shovele, schovel, showell, shoule, shole (> English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English scofl (“shovel”), from Proto-Germanic *skufl?, *sk?fl? (“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”), Swedish skyffel, skovel (“shovel”), Icelandic skófla (“shovel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???v?l/
• Rhymes: -?v?l

Noun

shovel (plural shovels)

1. 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. Not to be confused with a spade, which is designed solely for small-scale digging and incidental tasks such as chopping of small roots.
2. A mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function.
3. (US) A spade.
4. Short for shovel hat.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Fiji Hindi: sabbal
• ? Marshallese: jab??

Translations

Further reading

• shovel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

shovel (third-person singular simple present shovels, present participle shoveling or shovelling, simple past and past participle shoveled or shovelled)

1. 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.

   I don't mind shoveling, but using a pickaxe hurts my back terribly.

2. (transitive, figuratively) To move with a shoveling motion.

   Already late for work, I shovelled breakfast into my mouth as fast as possible.

Related terms

• shove

Translations

See also

• scoop

Anagrams

• hovels