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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

digging stick

Burr took her digging stick from beside her door and hacked a point on it with her new ax.

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

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 Pollard, Edward Bagby

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

From Oriental Women by Pollard, Edward Bagby

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 McIntyre, Margaret A.

Gill, from the Hervey Islands, calls it a sharpened digging stick, used also as a weapon.

From The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai by Beckwith, Martha Warren