English

A gardening trowel

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.

Derived terms

• pointing-trowel

Translations

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. (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.

Translations