steam shovel
2
5.7
- noun
- /stiːm ˈʃʌvəl/
- Archaic
:
excavadora de vapor
- With the roar of its engine, the steam shovel lifted heaps of dirt and rocks, clearing the way for the highway expansion.
Examples
-
The construction site was bustling with activity as a giant steam shovel dug deep trenches for the new building foundation.
-
The summer after my sophomore year at college, I came home to find the steam shovels scooping the top off Guadalupe Hill.
Blog text (17) -
But looking from him to the shift boss to the roaring steam shovels, I felt something in me slip.
Blog text (17) -
"You can, if you have enough dynamite and a steam shovel," Pop agreed as he reached for a pork chop.
Blog text (17) -
Remember, the Panama Canal was built with coal-fired steam shovels and coal-fired locomotives.
Blog text (32) -
Now here was Guadalupe Hill crawling with steam shovels and dump trucks, men shouting, steam screeching, whistles, bells.
Blog text (17) -
When the roads dried out, the Development Company brought a steam shovel to cover the debris and the mules with dirt and rock blasted from the sides of the mountains, but not before the weather cleared and the mules swelled and rotted in the late autumn sun.
Fiction book (1993) -
During the excavation, workers relied on a powerful steam shovel to efficiently remove tons of earth from the site.
Synonyms
24
3.4
A machine with a large bucket that digs and moves soil
9
3.9
A large machine with a scoop used for digging and moving earth
1
4.1
A large machine with a bucket that digs and moves earth
A large deep bucket on a machine used to lift and move dirt
How Powerful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is a direct composition of 'steam' (power source) + 'shovel' (digging tool/machine), so its meaning 'a shovel/excavator powered by steam' is directly inferable from the parts. This is a literal, productively formed noun and follows transparent compounding patterns common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would understand it.
Etymology
Steam shovel names a big digging machine from the time when engines ran on steam and did the hard work with a large shovel or scoop. Picture a noisy steam engine lifting huge piles of earth with a scoop, and so the name means 'a large machine powered by steam for digging and moving earth'.