auger
(ô'gər) 
n.
- Any of various hand tools, typically having a threaded shank and cross handle, used for boring holes in wood or ice.
- A drill bit.
- A machine having a rotating helical shaft for boring into the earth.
- A rotating helical shaft used to convey material, as in a snow blower.
tr.v., -gered, -ger·ing, -gers.
To drill or bore using an auger.
[Middle English, from an auger, alteration of a nauger, from Old English nafogār, auger.]
See crossword solutions for the clue Auger.
(AW-guhr)
noun
Any of various boring tools resembling a corkscrew, used in carpentry, digging, etc.
Etymology
From the misdivision of "a nauger" as "an auger". Ultimately from the Indo-European root nobh- (navel) that is also the source of nave, navel, umbilical, omphaloskepsis (navel gazing), and Hindi nabhi (navel)
Usage
"What is the strangest thing you've seen coming out of the ground? Once I had a T-shirt come out of the ground as we pulled the auger up." — Francois Marchand; Q&A; with Kathy Fiebich; Edmonton Journal (Canada); Sep 2, 2007.
For a list of words related to auger, see:
Tool (or bit) used with a carpenter's brace for drilling holes, usually in wood. It looks like a corkscrew and produces extremely clean holes, almost regardless of how large the bit is. Expansive auger bits have adjustable blades with cutting edges and spurs that can be extended radially to cut large holes. Large augers are used to bore holes in soil for fence posts and telephone poles, or in ice for ice fishing. Horizontal augers as much as 8 ft (2.5 m) in diameter are used in coal mining.
For more information on auger, visit Britannica.com.
1. A hand-held carpenter’s tool for boring holes in wood, similar to, but larger than, a gimlet; has a long steel bit usually not larger than 1 in. (25 mm) in diameter.
2. A rotary drill, usually powered, for cutting circular holes in earth or rock.
[Eq]
A boring tool for removing samples of sediment or rock from the ground. A number of different kinds are widely used in archaeology. The screw auger comprises a screw thread attached to a bar and surmounted by a cross-handle. The thread is twisted into the ground, thus drilling a hole (typically 2–4 cm in diameter) while trapping the deposit being drilled through in the thread. By repeatedly drilling in and pulling out the auger a sample of deposit can be examined. For shallow holes a posthole auger, either hand-powered or attached to the power takeoff on a Land Rover or similar vehicle, provides a good and quick glimpse of what is below the ground. A gouge auger is similar, but instead of a screw thread there is a sharp-ended tube with a slot cut in the side. This can be pushed into the ground, twisted, and then carefully extracted with a thin sample of the material through which the auger has passed trapped in the tube. For deep deposits of soft material where samples are needed, a Hiller auger can be used. This has a chamber at the end of the main shaft, and usually extension bars can be added to achieve depths of up to 20m.
IN BRIEF: n. - Hand tool for boring holes; A long flexible steel coil for dislodging stoppages in curved pipes.
Tutor's tip: An ordinary person cannot "augur" (predict, foreshadow) what will happen tomorrow, but he or she can use an "auger" (tool for boring holes in wood) to build a birdhouse without much training.
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Study of a man using an auger, from The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin, Albrecht Dürer, ca 1496
An auger is a device for moving solid or liquid material by means of a rotating helical flighting. The material is moved along the axis of rotation. For some uses the helical 'flighting' is enclosed in a tube, for other uses the flighting is not encased. An integral part of a drill, the auger of the drill bit uses this mechanism to remove shavings from the hole being drilled.
Agriculture
The grain auger is used in agriculture to move grain from trucks and grain carts into grain storage bins (from where it is later removed by gravity chutes at the bottom). A grain auger may be powered by an electric motor; a tractor, through the power take-off; or sometimes an internal combustion engine mounted on the auger. The helical flighting rotates inside a long metal tube, moving the grain upwards. On the lower end, a hopper receives grain from the truck or grain cart. A chute on the upper end guides the grain into the destination location.
The modern grain auger of today's farming communities was invented by Peter Pakosh. His grain mover employed a screw-type auger with a minimum of moving parts, a totally new application for this specific use. At Massey Harris (later Massey Ferguson), young Pakosh approached the design department in the 1940s with his auger idea, but was scolded and told that his idea was unimaginable and that once the auger aged and bent that the metal on metal would, according to a head Massey designer, "start fires all across Canada".[citation needed] Pakosh, however, went on to design and build a first prototype auger in 1945, and 8 years later start selling tens of thousands under the 'Versatile' name, making it the standard for modern grain augers.
A specialized form of grain auger is used to transfer grain into a seed drill, and is usually quite a lot smaller in both length and diameter than the augers used to transfer grain to or from a truck, grain cart or bin. This type of auger is known as a "drill fill". Grain augers with a small diameter, regardless of the use they are put to, are often called "pencil augers".
An auger may also be used in agriculture or animal farming for digging post holes. Such an auger is called an earth auger, soil auger, or post hole digger. This kind of auger can be a manually turned, handheld device, or powered by an electric motor or internal-combustion engine, possibly attached to a tractor (being provided with power by the tractor engine's power take-off as shown).
Other uses
Construction drill auger.
Various other applications of the auger include its use in snowblowers, to move snow towards an impeller, where it is thrown into the discharge chute. Combine harvesters use both enclosed and open augers to move the unthreshed crop into the threshing mechanism and to move the grain into and out of the machine's hopper. Ice resurfacers use augers to remove loose ice particles from the surface of the ice. Plumbers use a plumber's snake, a flexible auger, to remove obstructions from pipes. Handheld augers can also be used for garden planting.
In construction, auger screws are used for special drilling rigs to dig holes for deep foundation piles. Another use is for piles forming a piling retaining wall, which can be constructed in the same way as foundation piles.
An auger is also a central component of an injection molding machine. Augers are also used by ice fishermen to drill holes to fish through. These can be either gas- or hand-powered.
An auger is used in some rubbish compactors to push the rubbish into a lowered plate at one end for compaction.
Augers are also used to force food products through dies to produce pellets. These are then processed further to produce products such as bran flakes.
Augers are also used in oil fields as a method of transporting rock cuttings away from the shakers to skips.
Augers are also used in some types of pellet fed barbecue grills, to move fuel from a hopper into the firebox in a controlled manner.
See also
- Archimedes' screw (an auger for lifting water or sewage)
- Drilling rig
- Gimlet (tool)
- Screw conveyor
- Screw propelled vehicle
| Garden tools |
|---|
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Averruncator · Axe · Chainsaw · Cultivator · Earth auger · Edger · Garden fork · Trowel · Grass shears · Hedge trimmer · Hoe · Hori hori · Irrigation sprinkler · Lawn aerator · Lawn mower · Lawn sweeper · Leaf blower · Loppers · Mattock · Pickaxe · Pitchfork · Plough (plow) · Pruning shears (secateurs) · Rake · Riddle · Rotary tiller · Scythe · Spade · String trimmer · Watering can · Weeder |
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - vridbor, jordbor
Nederlands (Dutch)
avegaar, grondboor, brede boor
Français (French)
n. - vrille, (Tech) foreuse
Deutsch (German)
n. - (tech.) Handbohrer, Erdbohrer
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (μηχαν.) γεωτρύπανο, τρυπάνι
Português (Portuguese)
n. - trado (m), verrumão (m)
Русский (Russian)
бурав, сверло
Español (Spanish)
n. - barrena, taladro
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - jordborr, bergborr
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
大锥, 螺丝钻
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 大錐, 螺絲鑽
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 木工ぎり, オーガー
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) مثقب, جهاز حفر الأرض
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - מקדחה, מקדח, מכשיר לקידוח חורים באדמה
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