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

Rocky’s job of the day turned out to be shoveling the steps and sidewalks of the church, which was on a corner lot and had about a block’s length of sidewalk. — Tom Drury, Harpers Magazine, 29 Sep. 2026

Locals and government officials were clearing debris and shoveling thick mud coating much of the town. — Eugene Garcia, Chicago Tribune, 25 Sep. 2026

Several parody videos of people shoveling dessert into their mouths also circulated on social media. — Kayla Hayempour, NBC news, 25 Sep. 2026

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