spadeful
- noun
- /ˈspeɪdˌfəl/
- At that moment, as swiftly as before, the fat little boy threw another spadeful of sand at Larry.
- a spadeful of dirt
Examples
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With each spadeful of gravel, the path began to take shape under her careful hands.
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And then finally, the first spadeful of dirt hit the top of the box.
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She tamped down the remaining earth and threw a few spadefuls of snow on the spot.
Fiction book (1993) -
Clear of that impediment, he tossed spadefuls of dirt after it, one after the other in a steady rhythm.
Fiction book (2002) -
He walked almost casually, carrying the spear low, braced in both hands, as though about to lift a spadeful of dirt.
Fiction book (1991) -
He didn’t notice her, for he was intent on his task, his eyes concerned only with the spadefuls of dirt that lifted from the ground.
Fiction book (1991) -
Grunting at the unfairness of that, he heaved an overloaded spadeful of dirt from the hole, but when he lowered the shovel again and pushed in hard, he hit rock.
Fiction book (2002) -
The gardener filled the wheelbarrow with a spadeful of soil to start planting flowers.
-
He dug a spadeful of compost into the garden to enrich the soil for the new vegetables.
Synonyms
The amount of material that fills a wide digging tool
An amount that fills a bucket
An amount of earth or snow that fills a shovel
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Spadeful comes from the tool spade plus the part -ful, which means 'full of'. Imagine a spade filled with dirt — a spadeful is the amount that fits on the spade, so that is what the word means.