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Glite Dictionary
to shovel the driveway

to shovel the driveway

1 2.8
To remove snow from a driveway using a shovel
  • phrasal verb
  • UK
translation icon : quitar la nieve del camino de entrada

Examples

  • Saturday 2:01: First son shoveling the driveway.

    Academic text (2006)

  • After the heavy snowfall, we decided to shovel the driveway to make it safe for cars.

  • Every winter, I have to shovel the driveway before I can leave for work.

  • He went outside early to shovel the driveway before the neighbors woke up.

Synonyms

to shovel
vsto shovel the driveway
85 1.0

To move or dig material with a wide blade and handle

is specifically about clearing snow from a parked car area with a hand tool
to snowplow
vsto shovel the driveway
  • US
3.5

To remove snow from roads using a vehicle with a blade

is done by hand with a hand tool rather than by a vehicle

How Thorough

to snowplow
  • US
3.5
to shovel the driveway
  • UK
1 2.8
to sweep
227 1.0

Surface Forms

shovel the driveway infinitive
shoveled the driveway past
shoveled the driveway past participle
shoveling the driveway present participle
shovels the driveway third person singular

Morphology

shovel + the + driveway

The meaning is directly compositional: 'shovel' (to move/clear material with a shovel) applied to 'the driveway' clearly yields 'to remove snow (or other material) from the driveway.' The definite article 'the' is grammatical only and does not affect predictability; this verb + object pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the words will understand the MWE.

Etymology

Shovel the driveway comes from the simple image of using a shovel to clear the driveway of snow so a car can get out. So it means 'to remove snow from a driveway'.