backhoe

English

A backhoe (#1)

A backhoe (#2)

Etymology

From back +‎ hoe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbæk.həʊ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

backhoe (plural backhoes)

1. A piece of excavating equipment 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. (chiefly US, Canada, Australia) A multi-purpose tractor with a front-mounted loading bucket and a rear-mounted digging bucket. The tractor combines a front-end loader/loader and an excavator/digger.
   • 1967 June, Charles E. Rhine, “How to Rent a Backhoe”, in Popular Science, page 149:

     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

   • 1987, Dave Roberts, Pipe and Excavation Contracting‎^[1], page 173:

     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.

   • 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

• (multi-purpose): backhoe loader, loader excavator, backhoe endloader

Derived terms

• backhoe loader

Translations

a piece of excavating equipment

• Bulgarian: багер (bg) (bager)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: kaivinkone (fi)
• French: tractopelle (fr) f, rétrocaveuse (fr) f
• German: Baggerschaufel (de) f
• Russian: ковш (ru) m (kovš)
• Thai: แบ็กโฮ, รถแบ็กโฮ

a multi-purpose tractor

• Arabic: عقرب
• Bulgarian: екскаватор (bg) m (ekskavator)
• Catalan: retroexcavadora f, retrocarregadora f, excavadora carregadora f, excavadora mixta f, carregadora mixta f, pala mixta f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: rendegraver (da) c
• Finnish: traktorikaivuri
• French: rétrocaveuse (fr) f, tractopelle (fr) f, chargeuse-pelleteuse (fr) f, (Canada) pépine (fr) f, (Switzerland) trax (fr) m
• German: Baggerlader m
• Hungarian: kotrórakodó
• Italian: terna (it) f
• Malay: pengorek-kaut, ڤڠوريق کاءوت (pengurik ka'ut)
• Polish: koparkoładowarka
• Portuguese: (Portugal) retroescavadora f, (Brazil) retroescavadeira f
• Russian: экскаватор (ru) m (ekskavátor)
• Serbo-Croatian: građevinska kombinirka
• Slovene: traktorski kopač
• Spanish: retroexcavadora f, retrocargadora f, excavadora mixta f, cargadora mixta f, pala mixta f
• Swedish: traktorgrävare, grävlastare
• Turkish: beko loder, kazıcı yükleyici
• Ukrainian: зворотна лопата (zvorotna lopata)

See also

• bobcat
• excavator
• front-end loader
• JCB

Verb

backhoe (third-person singular simple present backhoes, present participle backhoeing, simple past and past participle backhoed)

1. To excavate using such equipment.

Further reading

• Category:Backhoe loaders on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• “backhoe”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “backhoe”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “backhoe”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “backhoe”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.