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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

digging stick

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 Edward Bagby Pollard

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

From Oriental Women by Edward Bagby Pollard

The shape suggests that it may have been part of a digging stick; however, the specimen is very highly polished on all of its preserved surfaces.

From A Burial Cave in Baja California The Palmer Collection, 1887 by William C. Massey

With one was found a mug, a ladle, a digging stick, and two ring baskets that had held food.

From Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado by United States. Dept. of the Interior

She found a root and pushed it out of the ground with her digging stick and threw it into her basket.

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

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