How to Use shovelful in a Sentence

shovelful

noun
  • Whole hogs cook all night in open brick pits fired with shovelfuls of oak coals.
    — Robert F. Moss, Southern Living, 13 June 2023
  • Loosen the soil to 12 inches deep and add a shovelful of compost.
    — The Editors, Good Housekeeping, 27 July 2018
  • What lay on the pillow was a charnel-house, a heap of pus and blood, a shovelful of putrid flesh.
    — Namwali Serpell, The New York Review of Books, 6 July 2022
  • Williams, dressed all in white, was granted the honor of turning over the first shovelful of dirt.
    — Hanna Raskin, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Mar. 2022
  • Put in a shovelful of good compost, or compost mixed with aged manure or worm castings.
    — Pam Peirce, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 Apr. 2021
  • As a powerful fire retardant, it was loaded into homes and consumer goods by the shovelful.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 23 Oct. 2020
  • Karuk elder Leaf Hillman and his wife, Lisa, were on hand to see the first shovelful of dirt scraped from the top of the earthen dam.
    — Debra Utacia Krol, The Arizona Republic, 2 May 2024
  • Instead of throwing the traditional shovelful of dirt, attendees pried bricks from the ground for a photo op to mark the start of the second phase.
    — Arkansas Online, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Karuk elder Leaf Hillman and his wife, Lisa, were on hand this month to see the first shovelful of dirt scraped from the top of the earthen dam.
    — Debra Utacia Krol, USA TODAY, 12 May 2024
  • Glancing around, the solo miners and sluice-filling duos up and down the river seemed intent on extracting the most from every shovelful.
    — Peter Reese, Popular Mechanics, 27 Aug. 2020
  • Not a single shovelful has been turned on this stretch between the Victory neighborhood and the Design District.
    — Dallas News, 28 Oct. 2022
  • Safety netting surrounded a large live oak on the property, not far from where Stimpson and others tossed their ceremonial shovelfuls of dirt.
    — Lawrence Specker | [email protected], AL.com, 18 May 2017
  • Members of the crew gingerly sifted through the rubble, pouring shovelfuls of debris through fine grates before discarding the rest into piles ringing the foundation of the home.
    — Sam Gross, USA TODAY, 15 Oct. 2017
  • Crews scraped the first shovelful of dirt from the top of the earthen dam on May 1, beginning the clearing of another obstacle for people and salmon who rely on the Klamath.
    — Debra Utacia Krol, USA TODAY, 12 May 2024
  • After bringing up only a few shovelfuls of silver spoons and gold coins, Lawes quickly retreated and called the police and the local archaeological society.
    — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, 9 Jan. 2018
  • Then came the crest and colors, the first shovelfuls for a $150 million training facility and the signing of local teenage goalkeeper Duran Ferree.
    — Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 June 2024
  • The Hurricanes' historic impact on the draft that began in 1995 and ended, ironically, the same year Alabama coach Nick Saban began sending first-rounders to the draft by the shovelful, isn't to be discounted.
    — Chase Goodbread, USA TODAY, 1 May 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shovelful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: