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Glite Dictionary
💰 To earn a lot 🍝 To eat quickly
to shovel in

to shovel in

7.7
To earn a lot of money quickly and easily
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : ganar
  • Some celebrities shovel in millions just for appearing in commercials.

So when the guy with the guys go into the room, they shovel in a bunch of money into a fucking laundry basket, bring it out to us.

Examples

  • He can shovel in cash from his investments.

  • Despite the economic downturn, the company continues to shovel in profits each quarter.

  • He managed to shovel in a fortune after launching his online business.

  • They shoveled in a lot of profits last quarter.

  • Many tech entrepreneurs have managed to shovel in millions from their startups in just a few months.

  • With that new investment, the company can shovel in profits faster than ever before.

  • After winning the lottery, he was eager to shovel in his winnings into various investments.

Synonyms

to rake in
vsto shovel in
  • Informal
29 4.6

To earn a large amount of money with little effort

is the same idea but uses a different informal image
to pull in
vsto shovel in
14 4.1

To earn money from work or business

is about earning very large amounts quickly with little effort
to rake in a fortune
vsto shovel in
  • Informal
1 4.3

To earn a lot of money quickly with little work

covers large earnings more generally rather than extreme cases

Antonyms

to spend
∞ 1.0

To give money to buy something or pay for services

How Much

to shovel in
  • Informal
7.7
to bring in
123 2.8
to earn
780 1.0

Surface Forms

shovel in infinitive
shoveled in past
shoveled in past participle
shoveling in present participle
shovels in third person singular

Morphology

shovel + in

The verb 'shovel' (to scoop or move material) plus the particle 'in' conveys a clear image of scooping something into a space, which can be metaphorically extended to scooping food into the mouth quickly. However, the specific eating/greedy nuance is a metaphorical extension that learners may not fully predict from the literal meanings without contextual exposure, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

The verb shovel in gives a picture of someone using a big shovel to push piles of money in to a safe or truck very fast. That's why it means 'to earn or receive large amounts of money quickly'.