digging stick

American  

noun

1. a pointed or spatulate wooden stick, sometimes having a stone weight or crossbar attached and used in primitive societies for loosening the ground to extract buried wild plant foods and for tilling the soil.

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Etymology

Origin of digging stick

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

Lawrence Barham, an archaeologist at the University of Liverpool, and his colleague Geoff Duller, a geochronologist at Aberystwyth University, had just descended a small cliff to a patch of beach beside the Kalambo River when they spotted the end of a carved digging stick protruding from the sandy riverbank.

From Science Magazine

This rounded knob is the handle of a Neanderthal digging stick made with the aid of fire.

From Nature

In other cultures, 3- to 5-year-olds successfully use a hoe, fishing gear, blowpipe, bow and arrow, digging stick and mortar and pestle.

From The Wall Street Journal

Schindler took out his wooden digging stick — modeled after primitive tools — and went after some wild garlic in a weedy tree box.

From Washington Post

With one was found a mug, a ladle, a digging stick, and two ring baskets that had held food.

From Project Gutenberg