Forms: 4–5 trowelle, 4–7 truel, 5 trowylle, 7 trewel, 5–8 trowell, 6 truell, 6–7 trewell, 8 trouel, 5– trowel; also 4 trulle, 5 troll(e, 7 trull, trule. [ME. truel, a. OF. truele (13th c.), F. truelle (14th c.), ad. vulgar or late L. truella (1163 in Du Cange), for cl.L. trulla, dim. of trua stirring-spoon, skimmer, ladle, whence the monosyllabic form.]
1. A tool consisting of a flat (or, less commonly, rounded) plate of metal or wood, of various shapes, attached to a short handle; used by masons, bricklayers, plasterers, and others for spreading, molding, or smoothing mortar, cement, and the like.
To lay it on with a trowel, to express a thing coarsely or bluntly; now spec. to flatter excessively or grossly.
1344. Pipe Roll 18 Edw. III., m. 45. (P.R.O.). In … iiij. hamers, iiij. Trowellis, vj hirdellis pro lymeputtes … xxx. ladlis pro cemento fundendo.
1382. Wyclif, Amos vii. 7. Loo! the Lord stondynge on a wall teerid, or morterd, and in the hond of hym a truel [v.r. trulle] of masoun.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., II. iv. (Harl. MS. 614), lf. 8 b/1. Aungels … ben seen to haue trollis & hangynge plometis and mesuris & towles & werke men.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 415. The parget of thy wough be strong & bryght; The trewel first ful ofte hit most distreyne.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, Pref. (1539), 1. I toke my penne in the stede of a truell.
c. 1570. Pride & Lowl. (1841), 32. A Bricklayer,… A trewell at his gyrdle weared he.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., I. ii. 112. Well said, that was laid on with a trowell.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., II. 110. The said Gum must be kept hot,… to be apply’d with a kind of Wooden Trule.
1719. Free-thinker, No. 118, ¶ 8. Mr. Thornhill [cannot] paint the Cupolo of Paul’s with a Trowel.
1785. Freeman’s Jrnl., 17 Dec., 4/2. If they throw dirt with a scavenger’s shovel, they also lay on praise with a trowel.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, III. xxii. 237. They supplied the place both of hods and trowels with their hands.
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. x. 362. The instrument I finally decided to be the most difficult of management was the trowel.
b. A culinary ladle or slice of this shape. Cf. trowel-slicer in 2.
1773. Lond. Chron., 7 Sept., 248/3. Fish and pudding trowells.
1855. H. Clarke, Dict., Fish-trowel.
c. A tool of this kind used in gardening, having a hollow, scoop-like, semi-cylindrical blade.
1796. C. Marshall, Garden., iv. (1813), 52. Plants … are best put in by a small spade or trowel.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 119. The compound is firmly pressed into the moulds with a gardener’s trowel.
1855. Delamer, Kitch. Gard. (1861), 16. The English trowel is excellent for many purposes; but besides it, it will be found convenient to have one or two long, narrow ones.
d. An elastic flat steel instrument used in spreading the paint in the manufacture of oilcloth.
1881. [implied in TROWELLER].
e. See quot.
1892. Greener, Breech Loader, 180. A properly-made trowel will load millions of cartridges before the holes become so worn that it has to be discarded. The author uses this counting trowel in loading all his cartridges.
2. attrib. and Comb., as trowel-handling, -planting, -slicer (cf. 1 b), -weilding; trowel-shaped adj.; trowel-bayonet, a bayonet resembling a mason’s trowel, which may be used as a light entrenchment tool, or when detached from the rifle, as a hatchet (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); trowel-beak, a bird, a Sumatran broadbill, Corydon sumatranus (Cent. Dict., 1891); trowel-gauge, an instrument for setting the nippers on a cotton-combing machine; trowel-man, one who uses a trowel; spec. a mason, bricklayer, or the like; also fig.
1902. Thornley, Cotton Combing Mach., 151. In setting the nippers great assistance is rendered by the use of a *trowel gauge.
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. x. 362, note. A piece of *trowel-handling as subtle as spreading the mortar under a brick.
1632. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, II. vii. A hard-handed, and stiff ignorance, worthy a *Trewel, or a Hammer-man.
1737. Salmon’s Country Builder’s Estimator (ed. 2), 69. A Trowel-man and Labourer … can perform one Rod of rough Work in five Days.
1756. Monitor, No. 73. II. 203. It has been the general defect of English politicians to proceed without a plan; ignorant trowel-men in the service of the state.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 657. 7. Furrow planting…. 8. Dibbling…. 9. *Trowel planting.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), III. 573 [Cochlearia danica] All the leaves *trowel-shaped.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 454. Broad, trowel-shaped, almost triangular daggers.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6504. A very large bread knife, and *trowel slicer.
1919. N. Y. Tribune, 23 May, 4/6. Bricklayers are not, however, employed in building this peculiar type [puffed brick] of boat, because with the mortar used, a trowel-weilding laborer is not required.
Hence Trowelful, as much as can be taken up on a trowel (also fig.).
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, s.v. Truellée, A trowell full of plaster or morter.
1801. Ld. Minto, Lett., in Edin. Rev., April (1896), 405. Cramming Nelson with trowelfuls of flattery.
1843. Ld. Cockburn, Circuit Journeys (1883), 184. Not one trowelful of lime.
