trowel

Etymology

From Middle English trowell, trouel, truel, from Middle French truelle, from Late Latin truella, from Classical Latin trulla, the diminutive of trua (“ladle”).

Pronunciation

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• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹaʊ.əl/
• Rhymes: -aʊəl

Noun

trowel (plural trowels)

1. A mason’s tool, used in spreading and dressing mortar, and breaking bricks to shape them.
2. A gardener’s tool, shaped like a scoop, used in taking up plants, stirring soil etc.

   I need to dig a hole for these begonias; would you pass me that trowel?

3. A tool used for smoothing a mold.

Verb

trowel (third-person singular simple present trowels, present participle troweling or trowelling, simple past and past participle troweled or trowelled)

1. (transitive) To apply a substance with a trowel.

   He troweled the coarse mix with a twist, leaving a pattern of arcs.

2. (transitive) To dress with a mason's trowel.
3. (figuratively) To apply something heavily or unsubtly.
   • 2014, Steve Rose, "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: a primate scream - first look review", The Guardian, 1 July 2014:

     The whole Planet of the Apes set-up has been ripe for metaphor – from slavery and Afro-American revolution to European conquest of the Americas, even the war on terror. But mercifully, there's no big subtext being troweled on here.

Further reading

• trowel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Trowel in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Anagrams

• Towler, Wolter