excavator

[ eks-kuh-vey-ter ]

/ ˈɛks kəˌveɪ tər /

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See synonyms for excavator on Thesaurus.com

noun

a person or thing that excavates.

a power-driven machine for digging, moving, or transporting loose gravel, sand, or soil.

a sharp, spoonlike instrument used for scraping out diseased tissue, as in dentistry.

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Origin of excavator

First recorded in 1805–15; excavate + -or²

Words nearby excavator

excardination, ex cathedra, excaudate, excavate, excavation, excavator, exceed, exceedance, exceeding, exceedingly, excel

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use excavator in a sentence

One that comes to mind is I took my friend’s car, lowered it into a pool with an excavator, told him about it.
Jake Paul’s Going to Save Combat Sports? Bank On It|Eugene Robinson|June 2, 2021|Ozy
Because most cities are built in layers, with older structures gradually buried beneath the new, excavators must destroy the upper layers to reach further back in time.
How technology helped archaeologists dig deeper|Annalee Newitz|April 28, 2021|MIT Technology Review
Projects are often complex, and involve excavators and bulldozers to shore up streambanks using giant boulders or to construct brand-new channels.
Simple hand-built structures can help streams survive wildfires and drought|Brianna Randall|March 26, 2021|Science News
Workers operating a tractor or an excavator while installing a drainage tile, a house foundation, or a new pipeline, perhaps, come upon an abandoned line.
Oil and gas companies are making old pipelines the landowner’s problem|Kate Wheeling/Nexus Media|March 10, 2021|Popular-Science

But, in light of Polly’s great-grandfather’s work as a famous excavator of myths, a la Joseph Campbell, we might also see such coincidences as reflections of a larger, more intricate design than the tangled branches of one family tree.
In ‘The Center of Everything,’ a woman with a brain injury tries to make sense of her thoughts — and her past|Ellen Akins|January 20, 2021|Washington Post
Nearby, a yellow Caterpillar excavator sits idle next to an opening that once led into a cross-border tunnel.
How Mexico’s Cartels Are Behind the Border Kid Crisis|Caitlin Dickson|July 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
One interesting case study is Sir Arthur Evans, the original excavator and “restorer” of the Minoan palace of Knossos on Crete.
The Classics are Dead! Long Live the Classics! Mary Beard’s New Book|Nick Romeo|September 20, 2013|DAILY BEAST
If they are Ancients and dead then let them be buried and left to the archæological excavator.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
He must have been an erudite excavator, but, in literature, a reader only of recent minor poetry.
Homer and His Age|Andrew Lang
That is, he said he was an excavator, but I never saw anything before that looked at all like him.
Us and the Bottleman|Edith Ballinger Price
The Red Ant (Myrmica rubra) plies, according to circumstances, the trade of a mason or excavator.
The Insect World|Louis Figuier
The steam shovel, or steam excavator, is a modified form of dredge adapted for excavating material on dry land.
Steam Shovels and Steam Shovel Work|E. A. Hermann

British Dictionary definitions for excavator

excavator

/ (ˈɛkskəˌveɪtə) /

noun

a powered machine for digging earth, gravel, sand, etc, esp a caterpillar tractor so equipped

any person, animal, or thing that excavates

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

excavator

Origin of excavator

Words nearby excavator

Words related to excavator

How to use excavator in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for excavator