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.
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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.
Many are known by noms de fl�chette: Harper Valley Fats and Butterball Stabler are regulars among the Jelly Bellies, while Oiley the Pot and Fast Trowel Mazz linger at Duffy's in Manhattan.
From Time Magazine Archive
This time it's a send-up of bizarre life-styles as seen through the hungry eye of Pamela Trowel, advertising director of Hunter's World magazine.
From Time Magazine Archive
What could the subject be to rouse such enthusiasm in the Associated Brotherhood of the Awl, the Plane and the Trowel?
From Initials Only by Green, Anna Katharine
Work on with the Sword in one hand, and the Trowel in the other!
From Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by Pike, Albert
It is to be supposed that a member of the societies of the Cauldron and the Trowel would appreciate good living.
From Fra Bartolommeo by Kendrick, Flora
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.
