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Shovel vs Hoe - What's the difference?

shovel | hoe |

As a noun shovel

is 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.

As a verb shovel

is to move materials with a shovel.

As an adjective hoe is

.

shovel

English

Noun

(en 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.
  • (US) A spade.
  • Derived terms

    * put to bed with a shovel * steamshovel * snow shovel * coal shovel * shoveler * shovelful

    Verb

  • To move materials with a shovel.
  • The workers were shovelling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.
    After the blizzard, we shoveled the driveway for the next two days.
    I don't mind shoveling , but using a pickaxe hurts my back terribly.
  • (figuratively) To move with a shoveling motion.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=December 29 , author=Keith Jackson , title=SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0 , work=Daily Record citation , page= , passage=The keeper then seemed to claw it out with fabulous reflexes only for TV replays to show the ball had most probably crossed the line before Forster had shovelled it away.}}

    See also

    * scoop

    Anagrams

    *

    hoe

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) howe, from (etyl) houe, from (etyl) . More at (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An agricultural tool consisting of a long handle with a flat blade fixed perpendicular to it at the end, used for digging rows.
  • * 2009 , TRU TV, 28 March:
  • It was obvious that it consisted of several blows to the head from the hoe .
  • The horned or piked dogfish.
  • Derived terms
    * backhoe

    Verb

    (d)
  • (ambitransitive) To cut, dig, scrape, turn, arrange, or clean, with this tool.
  • to hoe the earth in a garden
    Every year, I hoe my garden for aeration.
    I always take a shower after I hoe in my garden.
  • To clear from weeds, or to loosen or arrange the earth about, with a hoe.
  • to hoe corn
    Derived terms
    * long row to hoe

    See also

    * mattock * pick * rake

    Etymology 2

    From non-rhotic whore.

    Alternative forms

    * ho

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (US, slang) A prostitute.
  • * 2002 , Eithne Quinn, Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap
  • […] this chapter […] will […] explore why pimp (and hoe ) characters, with their dramatic staging of gendered and occupational relations […] have taken such hold of the black youth imagination
  • * 2003 , Dan Harrington, The Good Eye
  • At school they had been among the only couples that had not done “it” at the Pimp & Hoe parties that popped up occasionally at the dorm
    Synonyms
    * See also

    Verb

    (d)
  • (US, slang) To act as a prostitute.
  • * 2003 , Da’rel the Relentless One, M. T. Pimp
  • Pimpin’ came so naturally to MT when he and his sisters played pimp and hoe games that one of his sisters wanted to hoe for him when they grew up.

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A piece of land that juts out towards the sea; a promontory.
  • Usage notes

    * Now used only in placenames e.g. "Plymouth Hoe". ----