shaduf

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A form of shadoof — A device used since ancient times in the Middle East to raise water from a well or other low point, consisting of a pivoted rod with a bucket on one end and a counterweight on the other.

Scrabble 13
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Meanings

nounshaduf (plural shadufs)

plural shadufs

  1. alternativeAlternative spelling of shadoof.
    1 more example

    Were there a thousand&—or was it five thousand slaves?—cranking the long poles of these shadufs to raise our water? I know as we looked from our boat across that hot shimmering river, I could hear shadufs creaking near and far, and the sun blazed like a sword each time water splashed into a higher sluice.

    1983, Norman Mailer, “The Book of the Child”, in Ancient Evenings, Boston, Mass.; Toronto, Ont.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 120
Cite this entry
APA

shaduf. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shaduf

MLA

“shaduf.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shaduf. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shaduf,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shaduf.

Source: shaduf on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.