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Dustpan

Household Objects
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A shallow pan used to collect dust after sweeping. It can represent the remains of labor, neglect, or efforts to impose order.

Detailed Definition
A dustpan is a small pan with a flat edge that gathers dirt and crumbs swept from a floor. In poetry, it can make cleanliness seem temporary, since every act of tidying reveals what has accumulated. The object is suited to images of domestic routine, aging rooms, and humble attention to detail. A dustpan full of ash, hair, or shattered fragments may also suggest emotional residue: the small, unwanted evidence left after an argument, departure, or long period of neglect.
Example
Example in poetry:
“He swept the broken glass into the dustpan” makes cleanup a precise, visible action; A dustpan can support metaphor in “She carried the dustpan of old arguments to the bin”; “The dustpan held crumbs, hair, and the gray evidence of winter” uses collected debris to reveal domestic life; Pairing broom and dustpan in a poem can emphasize cooperation, routine, or the completion of a task
Additional Notes
A dustpan gathers what remains after cleaning, so it may symbolize residue, neglect, or incomplete efforts to create order.
Other Meanings of “Dustpan”
Also Known As
Dust Shovel
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