shovel

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A tool with a handle and a broad scoop or blade for digging and moving material, such as dirt or snow.
• noun A large mechanical device or vehicle for heavy digging or excavation.
• noun The amount that a shovel can hold; a shovelful.
• intransitive verb To move or remove with a shovel.
• intransitive verb To make with a shovel.
• intransitive verb To convey or throw in a rough or hasty way, as if with a shovel.
• intransitive verb To clear or excavate with or as if with a shovel.
• intransitive verb To dig or work with a shovel.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun An instrument consisting of a broad scoop or concave blade with a handle, used for taking up and removing loose substances, as coal, sand, earth, gravel, corn, coin, etc.
• noun A shovel-hat.
• noun In zoology, a formation suggesting a shovel. See cuts under paddle-fish and shoveler.
• noun See the quotation.
• To take up and move with a shovel.
• To move or throw in large quantities, hastily and clumsily, as if with a shovel: as, to shovel food into the mouth with a knife.
• To cover up with earth by means of a spade or shovel.
• To use a shovel: as, to shovel for one's living.
• noun Same as shoveler.
• noun The blade of any plow or cultivator exclusive of those having shares and mold-boards. Not only shovel-like blades but narrow vertical forms and horizontal scrapers are sometimes included. See scalp, n., 7; scooter, 3; scrape, 7; and entries below.
• An obsolete form of shuffle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun An implement consisting of a broad scoop, or more or less hollow blade, with a handle, used for lifting and throwing earth, coal, grain, or other loose substances.
• noun [Colloq.] a broad-brimmed hat, turned up at the sides, and projecting in front like a shovel, -- worn by some clergy of the English Church.
• noun (Zoöl.) a flat, horny process on the tarsus of some toads, -- used in burrowing.
• noun a machine with a scoop or scoops, operated by a steam engine, for excavating earth, as in making railway cuttings.
• transitive verb To take up and throw with a shovel.
• transitive verb To gather up as with a shovel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• 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. Not to be confused with a spade, which is designed solely for small-scale digging and incidental tasks such as chopping of small roots.
• noun US A spade.
• verb To move materials with a shovel.
• verb transitive, figuratively To move with a shoveling motion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a hand tool for lifting loose material; consists of a curved container or scoop and a handle
• noun a machine for excavating
• verb dig with or as if with a shovel
• noun the quantity a shovel can hold
• noun a fire iron consisting of a small shovel used to scoop coals or ashes in a fireplace