mattock (redirected from mattocks)

mattock

Picklike digging implement, one of the oldest tools of agriculture. It resembles the modern hoe but with a stone or wooden blade rather than a metal one, set at right angles to a long wooden handle. Though large-scale agriculture uses plows, harrows, and rotary hoes that open many rows of a field simultaneously, home gardeners and horticulturists may still use mattocks to loosen dirt and to chop weeds.

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mattock

a type of large pick that has one end of its blade shaped like an adze, used for loosening soil, cutting roots, etc.