The Collaborative International Dictionary
Shadoof \Sha*doof"\ (sh[.a]*d[=oo]f"), n. [Ar. sh[=a]d[=u]f.] A machine, resembling a well sweep, used in Egypt for raising water from the Nile for irrigation.
Wiktionary
n. A device used to gather water, consisting of a pivoted stick with a bucket on the end of it.
Wikipedia
A shadoof or shaduf (an Arabic word, , šādūf) is an irrigation tool. A less common English translation is swape and it is also called a counterpoise lift, well pole, well sweep. or simply a sweep in the US. It uses a bucket attached to a lever with a fulcrum fixed in the ground. The shadoof was an early tool used by Mesopotamian and Nile River peoples to draw water. It is still used in many areas of Africa and Asia and very common in rural areas of India such as in the Bhojpuri belt of the Ganges plain where it is named "dhenki". They remain common in Hungary's Great Plain, where they are known as "gémeskút" (literally, " heron wells") and are considered a symbol of the region. It was also known by the Ancient Greek name kēlōn or kēlōneion
Usage examples of "shadoof".
I know something of the shadoof of Egypt,-- the same arrangement by which the sacred waters of the Nile have been lifted, from the days of the Pharaohs to those of the Khedives.
Just outside, though you would never guess it from in here, was a free sunny slope, and the last creaking shadoof in the chain of lifting devices that brought seawater here by stages from the salt pools and reservoirs below.
It was the time of low Nile when all the land is baked like a crust of bread, when the creaking of the shadoofs and the singing croak of the sakkia are heard the night long like untiring crickets with throats of frogs.
It was the time of low Nile when all the land is baked like a crust of bread, when the creaking of the shadoofs and the singing croak of the sakkia are heard the night long like untiring crickets with throats of frogs.
After it gushes from the fountain in the temple precinct, the water is lifted by shadoof, water wheels, to the gardens of the palace, or sent by canals to every quarter of the city.