What is "auger"

Auger \Au"ger\, n. [OE. augoure, nauger, AS. nafeg[=a]r, fr. nafu, nafa, nave of a wheel + g[=a]r spear, and therefore meaning properly and originally a nave-bore. See Nave (of a wheel) and 2d Gore, n.]

1. A carpenter's tool for boring holes larger than those bored by a gimlet. It has a handle placed crosswise by which it is turned with both hands. A pod auger is one with a straight channel or groove, like the half of a bean pod. A screw auger has a twisted blade, by the spiral groove of which the chips are discharge.

2. An instrument for boring or perforating soils or rocks, for determining the quality of soils, or the nature of the rocks or strata upon which they lie, and for obtaining water.

   Auger bit, a bit with a cutting edge or blade like that of an anger. [1913 Webster] ||

c.1500, faulty separation of Middle English a nauger, from Old English nafogar "nave drill," from Proto-Germanic *nabo-gaizaz (cognates: Old Norse nafarr, Old Saxon nabuger, Old High German nabuger), a compound whose first element is related to nave (n.2) and whose second is identical to Old English gar "a spear, borer" (see gar). For similar misdivisions, see adder. The same change took place in Dutch (avegaar).

n. 1 A carpenter's tool for boring holes longer than those bored by a gimlet. 2 A snake or plumber's snake (qualifier: plumbing tool). 3 A tool used to bore holes in the ground, e.g. for fence posts 4 A hollow drill used to take core samples of soil, ice, etc. for scientific study. vb. 1 To use an auger; to drill a hole using an auger. 2 To proceed in the manner of an auger.

1. n. a long flexible steel coil for dislodging stoppages in curved pipes [syn: plumber's snake]

2. hand tool for boring holes [syn: gimlet, screw auger, wimble]

An auger is a drilling device, or drill bit, that usually includes a rotating helical screw blade called a "flighting" to act as a screw conveyor to remove the drilled out material. The rotation of the blade causes the material to move out of the hole being drilled.

An auger used for digging post holes is called an 'earth auger', 'handheld power earth drill', 'soil auger', or 'mechanized 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). Handheld augers can also be used for making holes for garden planting.

Wood augers have a screw to pull them into the wood, as a gimlet has, and a cutting lip that slices out the bottom of the hole. The auger bit, meant to be used in a brace, also has cutting spurs to cut a clean circle deeper than where the lips scrape out the wood.

In construction, augers 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.

Augers – either gas- or hand-powered – are used by ice fishermen to drill holes to fish through. Drilling into maple trees to extract maple syrup is also carried out with the use of augers.

Auger is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Alfred Auger (1889–1917), French-Algerian WWI flying ace
• Arleen Auger (1939–1993), American soprano
• Athanase Auger (1734–1792), French educator and translator
• Antoine-Augustin Auger (born 1761), French politician
• Auger de Balben (died ), French Knight Hospitaller
• Brian Auger (born 1939), British jazz and rock keyboardist
• Claudine Auger (born 1941), French cinematic actress
• Edmond Auger (1530–1591), French Jesuit
• Gerald Auger (born 1978), Canadian actor and producer
• Henry Lemaître Auger (1873–1948), Canadian politician
• Joseph-Oscar Auger (1873–1942), Canadian politician
• Langdon Auger, stage name of Scott Langejan, Canadian rap musician
• Louis-Mathias Auger (1902–1966), Canadian teacher and politician
• Louis-Simon Auger (1772–1839), French journalist and playwright
• Ludovic Auger (born 1971), French racing cyclist
• Michel Auger (politician) (1830–1909), Canadian politician, farmer and industrialist
• Michel Auger (born 1944), Canadian crime reporter
• Michel C. Auger, Canadian political columnist
• Pierre Auger (1899–1993), French physicist and discoverer of the Auger effect
• Pierre-Michel Auger (born 1963), Canadian politician
• Ryan Auger (born 1994), English footballer
• Stéphane Auger (born 1970), Canadian ice hockey referee
• Tito Auger (born 1968), Puerto-Rican musician
• Raoul Auger Feuillet , French dance notator
• Auger Ferrier (1513–1588), French physician
• Auger de Moléon de Granier , French writer
• Daniel d'Auger de Subercase (1661–1732), French naval officer

Category:French-language surnames

Auger may refer to:

• Auger (drill), a drill for boring holes, e.g. in wood or in the earth
• Auger (surname)
• Auger conveyor, a screw conveyor; a device for moving material or liquid by means of a rotating helical flighting
• Auger shell or auger snail, a common name for shellfish of the family terebridae.
• Auger effect, an electron effect in physics
• Auger electron spectroscopy, an analytical technique using the Auger effect
• Auger therapy, an experimental radiation therapy for the treatment of cancer
• Auger Hill, a hill in Antarctica, so-named because an auger was used take deep soil samples from its summit
• The Pierre Auger Observatory, an international cosmic ray observatory
• Auger weapon, a fictional rifle that drills through walls from the video game Resistance: Fall of Man
• A fictional gemstone from The Asher Bloom Chronicles series of novels