auger
/ˈɔ.ɡɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.77 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A snake or plumber's snake (plumbing tool).
noun
A tool used to bore holes in the ground, e.g. for fence posts
noun
A hollow drill used to take core samples of soil, ice, etc. for scientific study.
verb
To daydream.
name
A surname from French.
Example Sentences
- "Pete Burnett needs a fan belt for his auger."
- "It augered into the water and vanishedunder the surface only to float up again, its keel pointing skyward."
- "There was no way to measure progress inside the sphere, to know whether it spun or leapt or wobbled like a top as it augered through the years."
- "It augers down again behind him to gyre like a mindless deadly battling top."
Etymology
From a rebracketing of Middle English a nauger (seen as an + auger), from Old English nafugār (“nave drill”, literally “nave spear”), from Proto-West Germanic *nabugaiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *nabōgaizaz. Cognate with Dutch avegaar.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: nauger, nafugār, *nabugaiʀ, *nabōgaizaz, Auger, -
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɔ.ɡɚ/
- British English: /ˈɔː.ɡə(ɹ)/