Synonyms of shoveling

shoveling

verb

variants or shovelling

present participle of shovel

as in digging

to hollow out or form (something) by removing earth

the troops quickly shoveled a trench

Synonyms & Similar Words

• digging
• excavating
• dredging
• grubbing
• scooping
• burrowing
• clawing
• delving
• mining
• spading
• quarrying
• digging in

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• filling (in)
• smoothing (out or over)

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of shoveling

Right now, that means shoveling rocks, insulating and backfilling the basement of the American Hotel, the original hotel in the town which burned down in 2020. — Jordan Greene, PEOPLE, 2 Sep. 2026

Residents sat in homes with walls washed away by the floods, shoveling sludge-like mud and rubble off balconies or window frames. — Victoria Milko, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2026

Earlier this month, bulldozers were videoed uprooting trees and shoveling dirt as wild animals trotted by. — Ashley Killough, CNN Money, 13 Aug. 2026

Blücher, who eventually became a popular philosophy lecturer at Bard College, got a job shovelling chemicals in a New Jersey factory. — David Denby, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026

There’s truly nothing like licking that paper lid, then shoveling that tiny tongue depressor into a child-sized serving of vanilla or chocolate ice cream. — Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 2 Aug. 2026

When commercial extraction began in the 1840s, workers were not simply shoveling loose bird droppings. — Edward D. Melillo, Fortune, 27 July 2026

With the work now being migration, most programs are still shoveling, counting tasks and missing the structure. — Maman Ibrahim, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026

Spielberg didn’t film those terrifying closeups of the shark – like when Jaws pops up as Brody is shoveling the bloody chump slick in the water — until Day 92. — Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline, 22 June 2026