Meanings
plural broadshares
- A heavy cultivator with wide V-shaped shares, used to loosen and dig up stubble and weeds after a harvest.
The surface is first broken with a cultivator fitted with broad blades, a plough, or a broadshare.
1944 ·, Arthur John Brookes, Farming Equipment, page 522 more examples
This plough possesses the recommendations of being a Broadshare, Scarifier, and Subsoil Plough, combined in one and the same implement.
1853, Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland, Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland, page 64Immediately after the broadshare, the harrow is twice used to free the ground from the stubble, which is gathered in rows every fifteen or twenty rods, according to quantity, and if thought worth the labor, or in default of straw enough, this is carried to the yards, to be trodden into manure; otherwise it is burnt.
1860, Henry S. Olcott, Outlines of the First Course of Yale Agricultural Lectures, page 85
present singular third person broadshares · participle present broadsharing · participle past broadshared · past broadshared
- To go over a field with a broadshare.
The most effectual plan of doing so is to broadshare the stubbles.
1882, Robert Warington, The Chemistry of the Farm, page 713 more examples
When land proves to be very foul after harvest, it is best, first to shallow, spuddle, or broadshare the surface, harrow up the weeds, cart them to a mixen, or burn them on the spot:
1864, William Bland (of Hartlip.), The Principles of Agriculture, page 23The cheapest way is to broadshare the stubble immediately after harvest.
1866, Irwin Edward Bainbridge Cox, The Farm, Garden, Stable, and Aviary, page 4A further difference is that in Britain farmers would endeavour to plough, or at least to broadshare, their wheat stubbles immediately after harvest, so as to do some clearing.
1929, “A Great Sheep Country”, in Australia To-day, volume 24, page 61
Origin
From broad + share, that is, a wide share (cutting blade), as on a plow.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
broadshare. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/broadshare
“broadshare.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/broadshare. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “broadshare,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/broadshare.
Source: broadshare on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.