[f. EXCAVATE v. + -OR; cf. F. excavateur.]
1. One who excavates: a. gen. (Const. of). b. spec. A laborer employed to dig out earth.
1815. [Todd refers to an advertisement of Jan. 2].
1837. Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 197. (Engineer) To the ‘excavators,’ as they are called, the digging is let.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, vi. So the Excavators’ House of Call had sprung up from a beer shop.
1880. Echo, 18 Sept., 3/4. A number of excavators were engaged upon the foundations for a block of model dwellings.
1882. Century Mag., XXV. 303/2. A more thorough and comprehensive sifting of the Assos ruins by the same able excavator.
c. Said of inanimate agents.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Farming, Wks. (Bohn), III. 59. The railroad dirt-cars are good excavators.
1870. Echo, 10 Jan. Such is the testimony of Mr. Peach to the power of ocean as an excavator.
2. spec. a. A machine for digging out earth, etc. b. An instrument for removing the carious parts in a tooth previous to filling.
1864. in Webster.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 814/1. The excavator … is mounted on a carriage which traverses on a temporary track.
1884. Syd. Soc. Lex., Dental Excavator.
Hence Excavatorial a., pertaining to excavation, or to the work of the excavator. Excavatory a. = prec.
1849. Freeman, Archit., 80. Egyptian and Indian architecture are two separate products of the excavatory process.
1855. Fraser’s Mag., LI. 271. A long list of brilliant excavatorial successes.
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. x. 358. I got no outlet nor inlet for my excavatory fancy or skill.
