shadoof
(ʃəˈduːf)
Also schaduf, shadouf, shaduf, shayduf; chadous.
[Egyptian Arabic shādūf.]
A contrivance used in the East for raising water for irrigation purposes, consisting of a rod or pole working upon a pivot, at one end of which is fastened a bucket and at the other a weight to serve as a counterpoise.
| 1836 Lane Mod. Egypt. xiv. (1890) 300 The most common of these machines is the ‘shadoof’. 1837 Wilkinson Mann. & Cust. Anc. Egypt. ii. (1841) I. 53 The mode of irrigation was by the shadoof. 1858 Homans Cycl. Comm. 440/1 The cotton plants [in Egypt] are watered periodically by means of Sakyiehs, Shadoufs, or water⁓wheels. 1885 Lock Workshop Rec. Ser. iv. 90/2 The shadoof or chadous of Egypt. 1904 H. Spencer Autobiog. II. 338 The fellahs..work all day with their shadoofs, raising water to irrigate their lands. 1937 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Apr. 268/2 The sounds which run as an undercurrent beneath the activities of Egyptian life..are the creak of the water-wheel and of the shaduf. 1961 G. Clark World Prehist. v. 109 For any great extension of the fertile zone it was necessary to cut channels and lift the Nile waters into them by some such device as the schaduf. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropaedia IX. 100/3 (caption) Villagers in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, using a shaduf to raise water from a stream into irrigation channels. |