digging stick

noun

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.

Origin of digging stick

First recorded in 1860–65

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for digging stick

Historical Examples of digging stick

She took the basket and digging-stick home with her, put them up safely.
Creation Myths of Primitive America
Jeremiah Curtin
Like them, he wore nothing but the malo; with them he plied the digging-stick at planting time.
The Fijians
Basil Thomson
The first agricultural implement was probably the digging-stick, which was followed by the hoe.
The New Stone Age in Northern Europe
John M. Tyler
The garden is older than the farm, and hoe and digging-stick vastly older than the plough.
The New Stone Age in Northern Europe
John M. Tyler
Primitive woman had no plough, only the digging-stick, the agricultural implement of the Australians.
The New Stone Age in Northern Europe
John M. Tyler