Meanings
-
1
noun
A large piece of machinery that digs holes or trenches.
The cables are placed from 16 in. to 2 ft. down, and to save time and labour use was made of a mechanical digger lent by the Swedish State Railways.
-
2
noun
A tool for digging.
The post hole digger did look ancient. I was pretty certain myself that it hadn′t dug any holes for a long, long time.
Thesaurus
Synonyms
1
noun
· a large piece of machinery...
excavator
Word family
Derived forms
bonediggerclamdiggersdiggeressgumdiggeroil-diggerwelldigger
Etymology
* Derived from Australian Colonial goldfields terminology. The term represents the mateship of common interests and activities where most of the population were gold miners, and almost everybody was a mate, a "digger", with a common cause against the troopers, the traps, the mining license inspectors.