powerful machine for pushing earth or rocks, used in road building, farming, construction, and wrecking; it consists of a heavy, broad steel blade or plate mounted on the front of a tractor. Sometimes it uses a four-wheel-drive tractor, but usually a track or crawler type, mounted on continuous metal treads, is employed. The blade may be lifted and forced down by hydraulic rams. For digging, the blade is held below surface level; for transporting, it is held at the surface level; and for spreading, it is held above the surface level, as the tractor moves forward.

Bulldozers are used for shallow digging and ditching; short-range transportation of material; spreading soil dumped from trucks; rough grading; removing trees, stumps, and boulders; and cleaning and leveling around loading equipment. A bulldozer alone can do many types of excavation, and it is useful in combination with other machinery in most excavation work.