OriginFrom Middle English shovele, schovel, showell, shoule, shole (> English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English sċofl (“shovel”), from Proto-Germanic *skuflō, *skūflō (“shovel”), equivalent to shove + -el (instrumental/agent suffix). Cognate with Scots shuffle, shule, shuil (“shovel”), Saterland Frisian Sköifel (“shovel”), West Frisian skoffel, schoffel (“hoe, spade, shovel”), Dutch schoffel (“spade, hoe”), Low German Schüfel, Schuffel (“shovel”), German Schaufel (“shovel”), Danish skovl (“shovel”), Swedish skyffel, skovel (“shovel”), Icelandic skófla (“shovel”).
- dialectal, obsoleteA shovel.
“And the pots, and the shouels, and the snuffers, and the spoones, and all the vessels of brasse wherewith they ministred, tooke they away.”
“2003 And the pots, and the shovels, and the wick trimmers, and the ladles, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered, they took away. (2 Kings 25:14, Authorized Version of 1611 (King Ja”
- dialectal, obsoleteA spade.
- alt-of, datedDated form of shul (“Ashkenazi synagogue”).
- To move materials with a shovel.
“The workers were shooling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.”
- figuratively, transitiveTo move with a shoveling motion, to cover as by shoveling
“1898 The Winter's Tale [Annotated] by William Shakespeare, H. H. Furness, page 236, [Annotation for line] 511. shouels-in...Jamieson (Scottish Dict. Suppl.) gives: 'Shool, A shovel' and 'To shool on, ”
- To shuffle or shamble.
- To go about begging.
“Howsomever, I should have remembered the old saying, every hog his own apple: for when they found my hold unstowed, they went all hands to shooling and begging; and, because I would not take a spell a”
Formsshools(plural) · shools(present, singular, third-person) · shooling(participle, present) · shooled(participle, past) · shooled(past)