auger
n. countablen. a tool with a spiral blade used for drilling holes in hard materials like wood or ice. It can also refer to a person who makes augers.
n. a tool consisting of a spiral blade used for boring holes in hard substances; also, a person who makes such tools. Historically used in mining and carpentry.
The carpenter used an auger to drill a deep hole in the oak.
Before the invention of the electric drill, workers used a hand auger to create the pilot holes for the mine shaft.
The ice auger allowed the researchers to extract a core sample from the frozen lake, providing valuable data on the region's climate history over the last century.
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.