A mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function.
Used in a Sentence
shovels
Definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and sentence examples for shovels.
Editorial note
Selling picks and shovels is only viable for the small entrant if there's an actual gold rush.
Examples15
Definitions4
Parts of speech1
Quick take
A mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function.
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of shovels gathered in one view.
(especially US, loosely) Any shovel in the above senses, or any spade.
A hand tool with a handle, used for moving portions of material such as earth, snow, and grain from one place to another, with some forms also used for digging. In strict usage differentiated from a spade, which is designed solely for small-scale digging and incidental tasks such as chopping of small roots.
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for shovels.
noun
A mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function.
noun
(especially US, loosely) Any shovel in the above senses, or any spade.
noun
A hand tool with a handle, used for moving portions of material such as earth, snow, and grain from one place to another, with some forms also used for digging. In strict usage differentiated from a spade, which is designed solely for small-scale digging and incidental tasks such as chopping of small roots.
noun
Ellipsis of shovel hat. [(informal) A broad-brimmed style of hat, varying widely in detail, generally turned up at the sides and projecting in front like a shovel, formerly worn by some clergy in Britain, especially clergy of the Church of England.]
Example sentences
Selling picks and shovels is only viable for the small entrant if there's an actual gold rush.
As a player, it bothered me how power-ups (shovels and keys) cancel other power-ups without any indicator.
But in my experience, you don't get rich searching for gold, you get rich selling the buckets and the shovels.
Selling those GPU-enhanced servers is akin to the toolmakers selling shovels and other tools to gold-diggers.
When your mine runs dry, there's still often quite a bit of money to be made selling shovels to the other miners.
Just like selling shovels to gold diggers - never fails during the gold rush.
This thing shovels and computes a LOT of data per call, you cant optimize that out because its what authors of kdbus intended.
Hell, I bet it's even going to get VC funding someday (better to sell the shovels, right?).
You can still make a lot of money selling picks and shovels.
They didn't understand how to exploit hydraulics when they finally developed enough to move earth by the ton more cheaply than large steam shovels.
App Academy are selling shovels, for whatever price the market will bear.
The cable shovels were very successful, until they suddenly stopped being.
Quote examples
Its not like that in all places." Heh, I've always viewed these people as the people selling shovels during a gold rush.
The cable shovel customers said, "Ya, bigger shovels!
I get that it's a "sell the shovels" type of business, selling phone repair tools and supplies to people who want to make some side income.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use shovels in a sentence?
Selling picks and shovels is only viable for the small entrant if there's an actual gold rush.
What does shovels mean?
A mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function.
What part of speech is shovels?
shovels is commonly used as noun.