Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A flat-bladed hand tool for leveling, spreading, or shaping substances such as cement or mortar.
- noun A small implement with a pointed, scoop-shaped blade used for digging, as in setting plants.
- transitive verb To spread, smooth, form, or scoop with a trowel.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A surgical instrument of approximately trowel shape, used to push back protruding parts from the field of operation.
- To dress, form, or apply with a trowel: as, troweled stucco.
- noun A tool, generally consisting of a flat long triangular, oval, or oblong blade of iron or steel, fitted with a handle, used by masons, plasterers, and bricklayers for spreading and dressing mortar and plaster, and for cutting bricks, and also by molders for smoothing the surface of the sand or loam composing the mold.
- noun A gardeners' tool, like a small spade or scoop, used for taking up plants and for other purposes. See figs. k, above.
- noun A tool used in oil-cloth manufacturing to spread paint and remove what may be superfluous. It is made of steel, is 2 feet long, and very elastic, and has a handle near the broad end.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A mason's tool, used in spreading and dressing mortar, and breaking bricks to shape them.
- noun A gardener's tool, somewhat like a scoop, used in taking up plants, stirring the earth, etc.
- noun (Founding) A tool used for smoothing a mold.
- noun See Spade bayonet, under
Spade . - noun See Fish slice, under
Fish .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
mason ’stool , used in spreading and dressingmortar , and breakingbricks toshape them. - noun A
gardener ’s tool, shaped like ascoop , used in taking upplants ,stirring soil etc. - noun A tool used for
smoothing amold . - verb transitive To
apply a subtsance with a trowel.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a small hand tool with a handle and flat metal blade; used for scooping or spreading plaster or similar materials
- verb use a trowel on; for light garden work or plaster work
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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My pointed trowel is the artist's brush that will stroke and pry uncover and ecpose the old mission wall.
Pony Positive Day Two rabid1st 2009
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To build yourself, you need to know one end of the trowel from the other have some tools, some spanish & some time in country.
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The trowel is the key tool in the kit of any archaeologist.
2009 Field Report 2 « Interactive Dig Johnson's Island – Unlocking a Civil War Prison 2009
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The trowel is the key tool in the kit of any archaeologist.
2009 Field Report 2 « Interactive Dig Johnson's Island – Unlocking a Civil War Prison 2009
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The trowel is the instrument with which these honours -- and these fortunes -- are won.
Personality in Literature Rolfe Arnold Scott-James
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General manager Rob McSporran said the company dubbed the trowel "iPood!" and registered it as a trademark in Australia in October 2006.
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"Not very; I came ashore here to see if I couldn't find some clams," added Laud, as he held up a clam-digger he carried in his hand -- a kind of trowel fixed in a shovel-handle.
The Yacht Club or The Young Boat-Builder Oliver Optic 1859
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It’s a tight labor market, and we are warned by a gringo old-timer, “Every guy around this town who owns a pencil is an architect, and every guy who owns a trowel is a contractor.”
Gringos in Paradise Barry Golson 2006
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It’s a tight labor market, and we are warned by a gringo old-timer, “Every guy around this town who owns a pencil is an architect, and every guy who owns a trowel is a contractor.”
Gringos in Paradise Barry Golson 2006
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"_Plackett_, a tool contrived as a kind of trowel for smoothing and shaping the clay.
The Forest of Dean An Historical and Descriptive Account 1846
koldewyse commented on the word trowel
Thanks, Ivan Denisovich.
November 10, 2008
qroqqa commented on the word trowel
We have had nothing from the Liberal Party. All we had was Black Jack McEwen trowelling on the tariff protection while he was kidding farmers he was representing them, and Liberal Party Treasurers sitting up like slugs while being handed speeches by Treasury officials. They could not even read the stuff, much less comprehend it.
—Treasurer Paul Keating, Australian House of Representatives, 26 May 1988
September 11, 2009