backhoe

Etymology

From back + hoe.

noun

1. A piece of excavating equipment consisting of a digging bucket or scoop on the end of an articulated arm, drawn backwards to move earth. Used in excavator/digger and backhoe tractors.
2. (chiefly US, Canada, Australia) A multi-purpose tractor with a front-mounted loading bucket and a rear-mounted digging bucket. The tractor combines a front-end loader/loader and an excavator/digger.
   The backhoe is only one type of heavy equipment for rent.[…]I heard about a couple of tool-rental outfits near Chicago that were doing a brisk business renting backhoes and other heavy equipment to homeowners 1967 June, Charles E. Rhine, “How to Rent a Backhoe”, in Popular Science, page 149
   I'll recommend a good way to calculate backhoe production rates. Then we'll look at the two backhoes you'll be using, the wheeled backhoe and the tracked backhoe. 1987, Dave Roberts, Pipe and Excavation Contracting, page 173
   2010, Robert Day, Foundation Engineering Handbook, 2nd edition, page 2.49, Backhoe pits and trenches are an economical means of performing subsurface exploration. The backhoe can quickly excavate the trench that can then be used to observe and test the in situ soil (see Fig. 2.29).

verb

1. To excavate using such equipment.