spadeful

[speyd-fool]

noun

plural

spadefuls 

1. the amount that can be dug out with or carried on a spade.

Word History and Origins

Origin of spadeful¹

First recorded in 1635–45; spade ¹ + -ful

Example Sentences

There’s “nary a spadeful of dirt dug for a major development in Arlington that doesn’t have Art Walsh’s imprint on it,” The Washington Post wrote in 1982.

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“With every spadeful we were burying our story - our story as an Upper Missouri country people,” Lindberg said.

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That money is gone, wasted, without a spadeful of dirt being turned for a 55-mile highway so little needed that I previously dubbed it the Road for Nobody.

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This week the BBC threw another spadeful of dirt on the grave by decreeing in its latest style guide that Fleet Street was no longer a useful synonym for the print media.

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They borrowed a shovel from one of the nearby houses and hit metal with the first spadeful of dirt.

Read more on Salon