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.
See Examples For:
Nearby a large excavator slams its shovel into another building's remains.
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
In the meantime, Interlune is testing an autonomous excavator and building a research factory in Texas.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 31, 2026
On Thursday, mangled metal screeched as an excavator compacted the skeletons of former homes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
The farm-equipment manufacturer said Tuesday the facilities include a distribution center near Hebron, Ind. and an excavator factory in Kernersville, N.C.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
It had left a trail of destruction wider than a tunnel excavator.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
Two excavators were working to dig more graves in the light brown earth.
From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026
Eventually, Interlune aims to place autonomous, regolith-shovoelling excavators on the moon to scoop up the powdery material and process it.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
"I love this job, I fell in love with it the first time I came up here," she declares above the din of excavators working round the clock.
From Barron's ● May 23, 2026
In most cases the “mummy portraits”—as the paintings are called—came to be pried or detached from the full mummy by excavators, archaeologists or thieves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
After she goes, I turn on some kids’ songs about garbage trucks and excavators to block out the music from down the hall.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
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.
