shool

S1H4O1O1L1

noun

A shovel.

“The workers were shooling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.”

UncommonScrabble 8

Meanings

shool1

nounshool (plural shools)

plural shools

  1. dialectalobsoleteA shovel.

    2003 And the pots, and the shovels, and the wick trimmers, and the ladles, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered, they took away. (2 Kings 25:14, Authorized Version of 1611 (King James Version), 2003 edition)

    1 more example

    And the pots, and the shouels, and the snuffers, and the spoones, and all the vessels of brasse wherewith they ministred, tooke they away.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Kings 25:14
  2. dialectalobsoleteA spade.
verbshool (third-person singular simple present shools, present participle shooling, simple past and past participle shooled)

present singular third person shools · participle present shooling · participle past shooled · past shooled

  1. To move materials with a shovel.

    The workers were shooling gravel and tarmac into the pothole in the road.

  2. figurativelytransitiveTo move with a shoveling motion, to cover as by shoveling

    1898 The Winter's Tale [Annotated] by William Shakespeare, H. H. Furness, page 236, [Annotation for line] 511. shouels-in...Jamieson (Scottish Dict. Suppl.) gives: 'Shool, A shovel' and 'To shool on, metaph. to cover, as in a grave.'

  3. To shuffle or shamble.
  4. To go about begging.

    Howsomever, I should have remembered the old saying, every hog his own apple: for when they found my hold unstowed, they went all hands to shooling and begging; and, because I would not take a spell at the same duty, refused to give me the least assistance; […]

    1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random

shool2

nounshool (plural shools)

plural shools

  1. datedDated form of shul (“Ashkenazi synagogue”).

Origin

  1. Proto-Germanic*skuflō
  2. Old Englishsċofl“shovel”
  3. Middle Englishschovele
  4. Englishshool

From Middle English schovele (> English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English sċofl (“shovel”), from Proto-Germanic *skuflō, *skūflō (“shovel”), equivalent to shove + -el (instrumental/agent suffix). Cognate with Scots shuffle, shule, shuil (“shovel”), Saterland Frisian Sköifel (“shovel”), West Frisian skoffel, schoffel (“hoe, spade, shovel”), Dutch schoffel (“spade, hoe”), Low German Schüfel, Schuffel (“shovel”), German Schaufel (“shovel”), Danish skovl (“shovel”), Swedish skyffel, skovel (“shovel”), Icelandic skófla (“shovel”).

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

shool. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shool

MLA

“shool.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shool. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shool,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shool.

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