long-handled spade
- noun
:
pala de mango largo
- She chose a long-handled spade to make digging easier without bending over too much.
Examples
-
The man nodded, then thrust his long-handled spade into the shallow trench, grunting like Monica Seles on a first serve.
Fiction book (2000) -
He straightens and pushes the long-handled spade into the dirt.
Fiction book (1990) -
To dig deeper in the garden, you should use a long-handled spade for better leverage.
-
The long-handled spade was perfect for reaching the bottom of the narrow ditch.
Synonyms
25
1.0
A tool with a flat blade and long handle for digging
1
9.9
A long narrow spade that people in Ireland often use for digging soil
A spade with a long handle for digging narrow ditches
A small narrow shovel soldiers use to dig trenches
A hand tool with a flat rectangular blade for digging and edging soil
How Long
Surface Forms
Morphology
long-handled + spade
The meaning 'a spade with a long handle' is directly and compositionally derived from the parts: 'long-handled' (=having a long handle) modifies 'spade' (a digging tool). This follows a regular adjective + noun compounding pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
Long-handled spade is a very literal name: a spade with a long handle. The long handle helps you 'reach deeper' into the soil and 'dig narrow ditches', so the name tells you exactly what the tool is for.