digging stick

American  

noun

1. a pointed or spatulate wooden stick, sometimes having a stone weight or crossbar attached and used in primitive societies for loosening the ground to extract buried wild plant foods and for tilling the soil.

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Etymology

Origin of digging stick

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

They hunted with sticks; they threw a stick like your mother's digging stick; and they struck with a stick like your father's hunting club.

From The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone by McIntyre, Margaret A.

Burr took her digging stick from beside her door and hacked a point on it with her new ax.

From The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone by McIntyre, Margaret A.

Her only other implement is her digging stick, the primitive pick-plow excavator.

From Oriental Women by Pollard, Edward Bagby

So she took her digging stick and dug the teepsinna; but when she pulled it out of the earth, the foundation of the Star Country broke and she fell through with her baby.

From Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Judson, Katharine Berry

When at work requiring its use, the owner loosens the earth with the digging stick, held in the right hand, while her left hand plays the part of shovel.

From Oriental Women by Pollard, Edward Bagby