spadeful
Americannoun
plural
spadefulsEtymology
Origin of spadeful
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.
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.
From Washington Post • Jun. 28, 2022
Were we in a fool’s paradise, an epoch of superb whisky that would end when the last spadeful of Scottish peat is dug up and flung into the furnaces?
From Slate • Apr. 11, 2013
They borrowed a shovel from one of the nearby houses and hit metal with the first spadeful of dirt.
From Salon • Jan. 27, 2013
When it comes to breaking new legal ground, the California Supreme Court is frequently a spadeful or two ahead of all others, including the U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
That is to say, so long as he lived or refused to vacate that lease, no Droger could oust him nor yet lift one spadeful of earth from the property.”
From Cleek of Scotland Yard Detective Stories by Hanshew, Thomas W.
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.
