excavator
Americannoun
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a person or thing that excavates.
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a power-driven machine for digging, moving, or transporting loose gravel, sand, or soil.
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a sharp, spoonlike instrument used for scraping out diseased tissue, as in dentistry.
noun
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a powered machine for digging earth, gravel, sand, etc, esp a caterpillar tractor so equipped
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any person, animal, or thing that excavates
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of excavator
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“It’s like a hydraulic system. It really is very much like the jacks that push your car up, or something that an excavator might have,” Drew said.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026
In the meantime, Interlune is testing an autonomous excavator and building a research factory in Texas.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 31, 2026
Just to the north, where the village is known as Ban Nong Chan, Thai soldiers stood guard in front of an excavator filling a truck with debris during a military-organised media tour.
From Barron's • Feb. 7, 2026
"The noise was very loud. When we came out, we saw the excavator."
From BBC • Feb. 2, 2026
It had left a trail of destruction wider than a tunnel excavator.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
