different between shovel vs shovelling

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

English

Alternative forms

• shoveling (US)

Verb

shovelling

1. (British spelling) present participle of shovel

Noun

shovelling (plural shovellings)

1. The act by which something is shovelled.
   • 1828, Sir Henry Steuart, The Planter's Guide

     The latter is usually executed two spits deep, with two intermediate shovellings; but in the work in question, we should go down between three and four spits, without any shovellings.