Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

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.
Show More

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

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

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