digging stick

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of digging stick¹

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

The first agricultural implement was probably the digging-stick, which was followed by the hoe.

From Project Gutenberg

The garden is older than the farm, and hoe and digging-stick vastly older than the plough.

From Project Gutenberg

Primitive woman had no plough, only the digging-stick, the agricultural implement of the Australians.

From Project Gutenberg

She promised that she would not touch it, and went off happily with her digging stick and a sack.

From Project Gutenberg

Among the Australians, therefore, the woman still goes about with digging-stick in hand, seeking roots and bulbs for food.

From Project Gutenberg