backhoe

plural backhoes

1. A piece of excavating equipment, either an integral subassembly or an attachment, consisting of a digging bucket or scoop on the end of an articulated arm, drawn backwards to move earth; used in excavator/digger and backhoe tractors.
2. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of backhoe tractor: A specialized tractor with the backhoe subassembly. This type of tractor has been superceded by the backhoe loader and trackhoe in most roles.
3. AustraliaCanadaUSabbreviationellipsisEllipsis of backhoe loader: A multi-purpose tractor with a front-mounted loading bucket and a rear-mounted digging bucket. The tractor combines a front-end loader/loader (component) and an excavator/digger (component).

   Meronym: front-end loader

   3 more examples

   The backhoe is only one type of heavy equipment for rent.[…]I heard about a couple of tool-rental outfits near Chicago that were doing a brisk business renting backhoes and other heavy equipment to homeowners

   1967 June, Charles E. Rhine, “How to Rent a Backhoe”, in Popular Science, page 149

   I'll recommend a good way to calculate backhoe production rates. Then we'll look at the two backhoes you'll be using, the wheeled backhoe and the tracked backhoe.

   1987, Dave Roberts, Pipe and Excavation Contracting, page 173

   2010, Robert Day, Foundation Engineering Handbook, 2nd edition, page 2.49, Backhoe pits and trenches are an economical means of performing subsurface exploration. The backhoe can quickly excavate the trench that can then be used to observe and test the in situ soil (see Fig. 2.29).

   Synonyms: digger, backhoe loader, loader excavator, backhoe endloader

present singular third person backhoes · participle present backhoeing · participle past backhoed · past backhoed

1. To excavate using such equipment.