shovelful
- noun
- /ˈʃoʊvəlˌfʊl/
- We bury the mold and mantle in earth, stamping, tamping down every shovelful.
- shovelful of dirt
- shovelful of earth
- shovelful of sand
Examples
-
My father's body was lowered into a grave beside my mother's, and we each placed a shovelful of dirt on his coffin, except for Lou, who kept his hands in his pockets.
Fiction book (2001) -
With great emotional effort, she lifts a shovelful of dirt and tosses it onto the casket.
Fiction book (1990) -
After the third shovelful, a metal box appeared.
Fiction book (2000) -
Every time a shovelful of dirt is turned in Fort Craig, Batsell seems to be there.
Academic text (2009) -
Earth emerges in shovelfuls, piling up beside the hole.
Fiction book (1995) -
Yet, as the first shovelfuls of dirt fell upon the casket, Mrs. Mildmay could have sworn that the widow was smiling.
Fiction book (1999) -
Another task was for each of us to carry fifty shovelfuls of sand and fifty shovelfuls of rock in grain sacks from roadside deposits to work sites 100-200 meters away.
Academic text (2017) -
He filled the wheelbarrow with a shovelful of sand.
-
After each dig, she lifted a shovelful of earth from the hole.
-
The workers added a shovelful of mulch to every flower bed.
Synonyms
A small amount that a deep spoon holds
The amount of material that fills a wide digging tool
An amount of soil a spade can hold at one time
The amount a spoon or small shovel can hold
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Shovelful is made of shovel and -ful, where shovel is the digging tool and -ful means 'full of' or 'an amount that fills'. So a shovelful is the amount that fills a shovel.