Standard Lemma guide

spadeworker

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

One who does spadework, now especially in the figurative sense of preparatory work.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 1942, Lewis Mumford, article on Constance Rourke first published in Saturday Review, Volume 25, 15 August, 1942, cited in Dorothy Nyren Curley et al. (editors), Modern American Literature, New York: Frederick Ungar, 1960, p. 109, She was equally at home in music, literature, painting, drama, and the crafts; and she would run down an obscure picture, ferret out a local tale, or rummage through heaps of faded letters with the relentless patience that marks the useful spadeworker.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From spadework + -er or spade + worker.