shoveled

variants or shovelled
past tense of shovel
as in dug
to hollow out or form (something) by removing earth the troops quickly shoveled a trench

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of shoveled But earlier this year, the Navy reservist and his friend shoveled a six-carat diamond from a field in Arkansas where he's found over 300 gems so far. — Laura Turbay, ABC News, 2 Oct. 2026 Moments after an incredibly warm greeting, Quinn shoveled coal into the flames and stuck an iron in the forge. — Sarah Wood González, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Sep. 2026 Meanwhile, two sauna masters shovelled ice infused with fragrant oil onto the rocks and performed an Aufguss, a German ritual in which towels are twirled to spread scented air. — Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2026 After all, that is a quite a load – Lacy also caught 29 passes – and some of it could be shoveled off to Michigan State transfer Makhi Frazier. — Tom Layberger, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2026 In the absence of heavy equipment, rescue workers, police and volunteers shoveled debris by hand at many sites, looking for survivors. — Marc Ramirez, USA Today, 11 Aug. 2026 Those mounds of soil — not apparent in the photograph — were consistent with digging a hole as dirt is shoveled out and dumped along the edge. — Kenneth R. Gosselin, Hartford Courant, 5 July 2026 Quasars are the extremely active supermassive black holes at the heart of some galaxies, furiously feeding on gas that is being shoveled towards their maw, and growing as a result of this voracious feeding. — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 12 June 2026 All that was left of the snow was shoveled into melting mounds at the edges of intersections and crosswalks. — Jourdan Rodrigue, New York Times, 28 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shoveled
Verb
  • With his curiosity piqued, Rabtsevich dug through the TESS archives for more data on the same star and found an additional 22 instances of dimming.
    — Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 14 Oct. 2026
  • But Smith also failed to respect how dangerous and dug-in the Brewers are.
    — Mirjam Swanson, Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • The 50-ton boulder was found about 30 feet below the surface of the airfield while crews excavated the South Detention Basin, a stormwater management facility, as part of the ORDNext terminal expansion project.
    — Sara Tenenbaum, CBS News, 16 Oct. 2026
  • But the archaeologists who excavated the new skeletal fragments from Shanidar Cave in the Kurdistan region of Iraq say the fossils weave a complex tale of Neanderthal life and death, beyond what appeared to be deliberate violence.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 15 Oct. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Shoveled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shoveled. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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