digger
See also: Digger
English
Etymology
dig + -er. In the sense of "Australian soldier" Attributed to the considerable time that soldiers spent digging trenches during World War I.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 239: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GenAm" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈdɪɡɚ/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 239: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈdɪɡə/
Audio (AU): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪɡə(r)
Noun
digger (plural diggers)
- A large piece of machinery that digs holes or trenches; an excavator.
- A tool for digging.
- 2009, Sharon Bomgaars, The Best Clubhouse Ever[1], page 143:
- The post hole digger did look ancient. I was pretty certain myself that it hadn′t dug any holes for a long, long time.
- A spade (playing card).
- One who digs.
- 1997, Barbara J. Wrede, Civilizing Your Puppy[2], page 75:
- You′ve tried the supposedly sure method of squirting the digger with water from a hose, and that hasn′t worked. […] This step will discourage 99 percent of the diggers.
- 2005, Gary R. Sampson, Dick Wolfsie, Dog Dilemmas: Simple Solutions to Everyday Problems, page 130,
- Most retrievers are not inveterate diggers — that′s a trait usually reserved for other breeds like wire-haired terriers and schnauzers.
- (Australia, obsolete) A gold miner, one who digs for gold.
- 1853, Charles Dickens (editor), Household Words[3], volume 21, page 64:
- A successful Australian digger — successful, not merely in siftings and washings, but bearing the title, and its best credentials, of a “nuggetter” − came down from Forest Creek recently and took up his abode in a low lodging-house in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne.
- (Australia, dated) An informal nickname for a friend; used as a term of endearment.
- (Australia, informal) An Australian soldier.
- 1998, Helen Gilbert, Sightlines: Race, Gender, and Nation in Contemporary Australian Theatre[4], page 191:
- Costume played a key part in his differentiation from British soldiers as the Digger uniform came to embody Australian versions of masculinity and mateship.
- 2002, Jeff Doyle, Jeffrey Grey, Peter Pierce, Australia's Vietnam War, page xxiii,
- For many, the congruencies of the Anzac legend and the diggers who served in Vietnam were slight, too slight, and the legend seemed unable to accommodate them.
- 2004, Lisanne Gibson, Joanna Besley, Monumental Queensland: Signposts on a Cultural Landscape, page 99,
- Like many other Queensland communities, the workers from the North Ipswich Railway Workshops chose a statue of a soldier, or digger, to honour their fellow workers.
Derived terms
Translations
large piece of machinery
|
tool for digging
|
spade (playing card) — see spade
one who digs
gold miner — see gold digger
nickname for a friend — see bugger
Australian soldier
Anagrams
Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -er (agent noun)
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɪɡə(r)
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- Australian English
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English dated terms
- English informal terms
- English agent nouns