English

A backhoe

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.
2. (chiefly US, Canada, Australia) A multi-purpose tractor with a front-mounted loading bucket and a rear-mounted digging bucket.
   • 1967 June, Charles E. Rhine, How to Rent a Backhoe, 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, 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).

Derived terms

• backhoe loader

Synonyms

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

See also

• bobcat
• excavator
• front-end loader
• JCB

Translations

Verb

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

1. To excavate using such equipment.