Definitions
Wiktionary
- adj. US, Canada Ready for immediate commencement of excavation and construction.
Examples
“How many times were we using the phrase shovel-ready just two years ago?”
“Afterall, the first stimulus plan to provide jobs through so-called "shovel-ready" projects hasn't done much to bring unemployment below 9 percent.”
“But federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood opted to spend nearly all the available funds cash on construction and manufacturing - in other words, what used to be called "shovel-ready" projects.”
“Most likely to succeed: shovel-ready: an infrastructure projects that can be started quickly when funds become available.”
“Okay, we lost grandma to cancer because the Blue Cross was more of a double-cross when they told us she'd cost them enough and they weren't paying more, but at least Barack Husein Obama didn't make her shovel-ready.”
The Huffington Post: Brian Ross: The Do-It-Yourself Deprogrammers Guide to Fox News Zombies
“This would create a stampede to produce real "shovel-ready" domestic investment and jobs.”
“And even Mr. Obama now admits that the shovels weren't ready in all those "shovel-ready" stimulus projects.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Obama Presidency by the Numbers
“In fact, Obama now says there was no such thing as shovel-ready projects when he entered office.”
“It's taking too long for so-called shovel-ready projects to get going -- making it difficult to use public works programs as a counter-cyclical remedy.”
“In the new economy we inhabit today, there exists an entirely different kind of infrastructure, with entirely different "shovel-ready projects.”
The Wall Street Journal: Cyber Stimulus: Blogging Is Shovel-Ready, Too
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘shovel-ready’.
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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Mollusque's miscellany
A mixture of words that I like or have commented on, along with ones parked here so they'd be listed somewhere or remind me of lists I want to make.
oranger, monographer, preoccupied, bu, bobization, coinventor, tetrapyloctomy, borgmannian, suspercollate, manhug, mancrush, obituarist and 604 more...
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In the News
johnstown flood tax, beige plague, antikythera mecha..., hyena-like vandals, sticker of shame, wombat leave, dutchy, grease infractions, thread count sett..., inherent vice, biobigotry, tank plinking and 98 more...
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skipvia's Words
syzygy, egg, lossy, catharsis, impuissance, truckle, obsequious, sequoia, sonot khazoot, alizarin, sepulchre, klister and 434 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for shovel-ready.
qroqqa "I mean, I'm set to go! I'm a shovel-ready girlfriend!"
—Alex, Doonesbury Feb 23, 2009
reesetee C_b: Yes, it's supposed to have a meaning similar to "turnkey," as they used to use it when referring to nuclear power plants. Jan 20, 2009
sionnach Turkeys have nuclear power plants?
The sky is falling!
The sky is falling! Jan 19, 2009
rolig LOL, exactly. Jan 19, 2009
bilby Plug-and-pray? Jan 19, 2009
rolig A turnkey is an old word for jailer/gaoler! But what about plug-and-play, as in "plug-and-play nuclear power plants". Jan 19, 2009
chained_bear Is it at all like turnkey? Because people are still using that--turnkey nuclear power plants, for example.
Unless I'm misremembering... Jan 19, 2009
bilby Worm-ready! Jan 19, 2009
reesetee Let's hope so. ;-) Jan 19, 2009
rolig I give this word maybe six months at most. Then it will itself be shovel-ready in Skipvia's sense of the word. Jan 19, 2009
reesetee "Governors and economic development agencies use the phrase all the time now. It has even been modified--a witness testifying at a House of Representatives hearing spoke of 'shovel-readiness' in October. Since Obama's 'Meet the Press' appearance, a string of governors, including Maryland's Martin O'Malley, have issued statements crowing about their shovel-ready projects.
"Shovel-ready, in other words, has arrived."
-- "The Obama Buzzword That Hit Pay Dirt," WashingtonPost.com, 1/8/09 Jan 19, 2009
bilby I did some gardening last weekend. My old tomato plants are shovel-ready. Dec 9, 2008
reesetee Ha! That's what I was thinking, skip. Dec 9, 2008
skipvia In a political context it could have completely different connotations: "That was a shovel-ready speech if I ever heard one," or "It looks like Ted Stevens is about shovel-ready." Dec 9, 2008
sionnach I guess you could refer to this as a kind of proactive debottlenecking. Dec 9, 2008
skipvia I heard this term (referring to construction projects that are ready to be implemented) for the first time today on NPR and was surprised to find it in fairly common use. There's even a shovelready.com. Dec 9, 2008