trowel
Americannoun
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any of various tools having a flat blade with a handle, used for depositing and working mortar, plaster, etc.
-
a similar tool with a curved, scooplike blade, used in gardening for taking up plants, turning up earth, etc.
verb (used with object)
noun
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any of various small hand tools having a flat metal blade attached to a handle, used for scooping or spreading plaster or similar materials
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a similar tool with a curved blade used by gardeners for lifting plants, etc
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of trowel
1300–50; Middle English < Old French truelle < Late Latin truella, equivalent to Latin tru ( a ) ladle + -ella -elle
Explanation
A trowel is a tool for digging small holes or spreading plaster. If you're an avid gardener (or an apprentice bricklayer), you probably own a trowel. Gardeners use trowels to dig shallow troughs for planting seeds, bulbs, or small plants. Gardening trowels are basically small shovels. When you're building a stone wall or grouting tile, your trowel will look a bit different—it will be flatter and possibly triangular in shape. The Late Latin source of trowel, truella, means "small ladle or dipper."
Vocabulary lists containing trowel
Seedfolks
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Written in Bone
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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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.
He said the peeling knife was his late grandmother's, the sickle had been purchased a decade ago and the trowel, which has a short blade and wooden handle, was a present.
From BBC • Aug. 6, 2025
You’ll want to bring a trowel, and have a plan for toilet paper.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2025
This is after all a horror picture, and Stevenson layers on the horror tropes with a trowel, so much so that the movie descends into wretched excessiveness.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 5, 2024
The team of researchers used a trowel to shave 1 to 2 centimeters of snow from the surface of 130 polar bear prints left near Alaska’s North Slope.
From Science Magazine • Dec. 5, 2023
Quickly, he moved the rocks aside and plunged the trowel into the dirt.
From "Ruby Holler" by Sharon Creech
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.
