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auger.

A carpenter's tool for boring holes longer than those bored by a gimlet.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɔː.ɡə(ɹ)/UK/ˈɔ.ɡɚ/US/ˈɑ.ɡɚ/cot-caught-merger
  1. A carpenter's tool for boring holes longer than those bored by a gimlet.

  2. A snake or plumber's snake (plumbing tool).

  3. A tool used to bore holes in the ground, e.g. for fence posts

  4. A hollow drill used to take core samples of soil, ice, etc. for scientific study.

Where this word comes from

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.

verb/ˈɔː.ɡə(ɹ)/UK/ˈɔ.ɡɚ/US/ˈɑ.ɡɚ/cot-caught-merger
  1. To use an auger; to drill a hole using an auger.

  2. To proceed in the manner of an auger.

  3. To daydream.

    uncommon
Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.