Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A device consisting of a long suspended pole weighted at one end and having a bucket at the other end, used in the Near East and especially Egypt for raising water, as for the irrigation of land.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A contrivance extensively employed in Egypt and the East generally for raising water.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A machine, resembling a well sweep, used in Egypt for raising water from the Nile for irrigation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A device used to gather water, consisting of a pivoted stick with a bucket on the end of it.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Arabic šādūf.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Egyptian Arabic شادوف (shādūf).

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Examples

  • The "shadoof" of today is the same in form as that used by the ancient Egyptians.

    Round the World Andrew Carnegie 1877

  • After it gushes from the fountain in the temple precinct, the water is lifted by shadoof, water wheels, to the gardens of the palace, or sent by canals to every quarter of the city. '

    Warlock Smith, Wilbur 2001

  • At the jetty I set up a shadoof to lift from the river a constant flow of water that I led through ceramic pipes to our own water-garden with lily-ponds dnd fish-pools.

    River God Smith, Wilbur, 1933- 1993

  • It was based pn the same principle as the shadoof water buckets.

    River God Smith, Wilbur, 1933- 1993

  • Our boat sped close in beside the papyrus beds; near enough for the creaking of the water buckets of the shadoof, on their long, counter-balanced arms, to carry from the fields across the water.

    River God Smith, Wilbur, 1933- 1993

  • Counterpoise lift (shadoof) · With a rope and bucket lift

    Chapter 4 1976

  • The usual contrivance for raising water from the Nile for watering the crops was the _shadoof_, or pole and bucket, so common still in Egypt, and even the water-wheel appears to have been employed in more recent times.

    Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life

  • The _shadoof_, or water-hoist, is patiently worked as it has been for thousands of years; while the cylindrical hoist employed in Lower Egypt was invented and introduced in

    The Treasury of Ancient Egypt Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology Arthur E. P. B. Weigall

  • In a recent London play dealing with ancient Egypt, the actor-manager exerted his historic imagination, in one scene, in so far as to introduce a _shadoof_ or water-hoist, which was worked as a naturalistic side-action to the main incident.

    The Treasury of Ancient Egypt Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology Arthur E. P. B. Weigall

  • The mode of irrigation adopted by the ancient Egyptians was exceedingly simple, being merely the _shadoof_, or pole and bucket of the present day; and, in many instances, men were employed to carry the water in pails, suspended by a wooden yoke they bore upon their shoulders.

    Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life

Comments

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  • The pyramids furnish the proof

    We need but the hand and the hoof,

    For camel and manpower

    Built every grand tower,

    Assisted by levers, the sledge and shadoof.

    November 17, 2018