Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Trowel |
TrowelNoun1. A small hand tool with a handle and flat metal blade; used for scooping or spreading plaster or similar materials. Verb1. Use a trowel on; for light garden work or plaster work. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "trowel" was first used: 1344. (references) |
Etymology: Trowel \Trow"el\, noun. [from Old English expression truel, Old French truele, French truelle, Late Latin expression truella, from Latin expression trulla, diminutive of trua ladle; probably akin to Greek stirrer, ladle, German quirl stirrer, MHG. twirel, Old High German. dwiril, Icelandic [thorn]vara, Anglo-Saxon [thorn]wiril. Compare to Twirl.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of a trowel, denotes you will experience reaction in unfavorable business, and will vanquish poverty. To see one rusty or broken, unavoidable ill luck is fast approaching you. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Food & Agriculture | A small tool consisting of handle and a scoop-shaped or flat-bladed gardening implement (metal or metal and wood) used especially for taking up and setting small plants, turning up earth, etc. Source: European Union. (references) |
Metallurgy | A tool consisting of a steel blade of appropriate shape and extended by an offset rod fitted into a handle. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Receptacle | Shovel, trowel, spoon, spatula, ladle, dipper, tablespoon, watch glass, thimble. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Trowel |
| English words defined with "trowel": Brick trowel ♦ fish slice ♦ garden trowel ♦ mason's trowel ♦ plastering trowel, pointing trowel ♦ slick, Spade bayonet ♦ Troweled, Trowelful, Trullization. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "trowel": smoothing trowel. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "trowel": Trullization. (references) |
| Domain | Title | ||
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Periodicals |
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Consumer Goods |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Secretary of the treasury, Henry Morgenthau wields the trowel during the cornerstone laying for NCI's building 6 on June 24, 1939. Mrs. Luke Wilson, whose husband, a cancer victim, donated the land for the building, and Dr. Thomas Parron, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, look on. The PHS was then a part of the Treasury Department. See also ar000175. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |  | Senator Homer T. Bone of Washington, wields a trowel. Looking on is the Surgeon General Thomas Parran at the laying of the cornerstone of the new National Cancer Institute Building 6 on June 24, 1939. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |
 | The planting area at the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Reserve. The stakes in the background mark the planting zone within the intertidal range. The boy in the image is using a trowel to begin planting. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | Trygve Lie, secretary-general of the United Nations, levels cement with bricklayer's trowel as the cornerstone for the U.N. permanent headquarters is lowered into place during ceremonies in New York City. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Benjamin Disraeli | Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | Such sayings themselves grow harder and adhere more firmly with age, and it would take many blows with a trowel to clean an old wiseacre of them. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Trowel" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Trowel" is used about 113 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 113 | 30,464 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "trowel" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Trowel | Last name | 100 | 76,925 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "trowel": Brick trowel ♦ Fish trowel ♦ garden trowel ♦ lay it on with a trowel ♦ mason's trowel ♦ plastering trowel ♦ pointing trowel ♦ Trowel bayonet. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "trowel": trowel-fed, trowel-full. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
trowel | 64 | rose trowel | 3 |
power trowel | 27 | plaster trowel | 3 |
skip trowel | 12 | magic trowel | 2 |
marshalltown trowel | 11 | pool trowel | 2 |
garden trowel | 8 | archaeology trowel | 2 |
concrete trowel | 7 | corner trowel | 2 |
concrete power trowel | 7 | adjustable trowel | 2 |
whiteman power trowel | 6 | ride trowel | 2 |
potting trowel | 4 | trowel finishing | 2 |
fresno trowel | 4 | power trowel used | 2 |
trowel machine | 3 | es fine narcocast trowel | 2 |
brick trowel | 3 | cement power trowel | 2 |
notched trowel | 3 | plastering trowel | 2 |
trowel versa | 3 | hand trowel | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "trowel"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | qyrek (dustpan), perdaf, mistri (darby). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مقلع النبات, مجرفة (hoe, mattock, scoop, shovel, spade), المالج أداة يطين بها. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | мистрия (float), замазвам с мистрия. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 鋘 (to plaster), 鏝 (side of coin without words), 修平刀. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | zednická lžíce, zahradnická lopata. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | trundsel, polerske, planteske til udplantning (hand-fork, transplanter), murske. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | truweel, troffel, plekspaan, planteschopje (hand-fork, transplanter), plakspaan, gereedschap voor het overplanten (hand-fork, transplanter). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | ماله کشیدن , ماله (Malay), بیلچه باغبانی (Scufflehoe). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | silityslusikka, silityslasta, silityskauha. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | truelle, houlette, déplantoir (transplanter). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Kelle (dipper, ladle, ladleful, scoop, strainer), Hohlspatel (trowels). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | μυστρί. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מ'רפ" (rake, shovel), כף סי"ים (hawk, mortarboard). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | vakolókanál. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | sekop (scoop, spade), menambal (mend, patch). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | trapiantatoio (hand-fork, transplanter), frattazzo, cazzuola. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | traval. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papago | bithhunakud. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | oweltray talocha, esparável, colher de trolha, colher de pedreiro. (various references) mistrie (float). (various references) совок (dustpan, scoop, shovel), лопатка (blade, bucket, scapula, scapulae, shoulder blade, shoulder-blade, skimmer, spade-bone, vane). (various references) mistrija (jointer). (various references) paleta (battledore, blade, ice lolly, paddle, palette, pallet, spreader). (various references) murslev. (various references) malayla düzeltmek, mala (float, spatula, spud). (various references) садовий совок, кельма. (various references) nịnh ra mặt. (various references) trywel. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Late Latin | 300-700 | truella. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "trowel": troweled, troweler, trowelers, troweling, trowelled, trowelling, trowels. (additional references) | |
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"Trowel" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: drowel, growel, Shorwell, torel, torotel, Torrel, Toweel, towell, trawle, Treowen, trewe, Trewhella, Triewald, Troueil, trowal, trowe, trowed, trowelful, trowen, trower, trowler, Trowse. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "trowel" (pronounced 'Trow"el'): Aiel, Bejewel, Bethel, Bezel, Borel, Brotel, Brothel, Bulbel, Burel, Camel, Catel, Crewel, Embowel, Firmer-chisel, Frizel, Futchel, Gibel, Goel, grovel, gruel, Hamel, impanel, knawel, Lorel, Mochel, Mosel, Muchel, New-model, nickel, Outtravel, Owel, Perel, Pointel, Pomel, Pritchel, Ratchel, ravel, Reapparel, remodel, Renovel, Reparel, ridgel, satchel, Scovel, seckel, Sewel, shekel, Shewel, Sisel, Sorel. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-l-o-r-t-w" | |
-1 letter: lower, owlet, rowel, towel, tower, wrote. | |
-2 letters: lore, lowe, orle, role, rote, rotl, tole, tore, trow, welt, wert, wore, wort. | |
-3 letters: let, lot, low, ole, ore, ort, owe, owl, ret, roe, rot, row, tel, tew, toe, tor, tow, two, wet, woe, wot. | |
-4 letters: el, er, et, lo, oe, or, ow, re, to, we, wo. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-l-o-r-t-w" | |
+1 letter: felwort, trowels, whortle. | |
+2 letters: bellwort, colewort, felworts, fleawort, floweret, leadwort, pilewort, troweled, troweler, waterlog, waterloo, whortles. | |
+3 letters: afterglow, bellworts, coleworts, fleaworts, flowerets, flowerpot, flowmeter, growliest, interflow, leadworts, liverwort, lousewort, lowermost, metalwork, pileworts, polywater, steelwork, towerlike, trowelers, troweling, trowelled, waterfowl, waterlogs, waterloos, worktable, worthless. | |
+4 letters: afterglows, afterworld, floodwater, flowerette, floweriest, flowerpots, flowmeters, liverworts, louseworts, metalworks, multipower, otherwhile, otherworld, outbrawled, outcrawled, outlawries, outwhirled, outwrestle, polywaters, rottweiler, spleenwort, starflower, steelworks, toweringly, trowelling, twinflower, watercolor, waterflood, waterfowls, watermelon, withholder, wolframite, worktables, worldliest, worthwhile. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Images: Slideshow | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Familiar 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Names: Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
