spade

¹ American  

[speyd] / speɪd /

noun

1. a tool for digging, having an iron blade adapted for pressing into the ground with the foot and a long handle commonly with a grip or crosspiece at the top, and with the blade usually narrower and flatter than that of a shovel.

2. some implement, piece, or part resembling this.

3. a sharp projection on the bottom of a gun trail, designed to dig into the earth to restrict backward movement of the carriage during recoil.

---

verb (used with object)

spades, present (3rd person singular) spaded, past participle, past spading present participle

1. to dig, cut, or remove with a spade (sometimes followed byup ).

   Let's spade up the garden and plant some flowers.

idioms

1. call a spade a spade, to call something by its real name; be candidly explicit; speak plainly or bluntly.

   To call a spade a spade, he's a crook.

2. in spades,

   1. in the extreme; positively.

      He's a hypocrite, in spades.

   2. without restraint; outspokenly.

      I told him what I thought, in spades.

spade ² American  

[speyd] / speɪd /

noun

1. a black figure shaped like an inverted heart and with a short stem at the cusp opposite the point, used on playing cards.

2. a card of the suit bearing such figures.

3. spades,

   1. (used with a singular or plural verb) the suit so marked: Spades count double.

      Spades is trump.

      Spades count double.

   2. (used with a plural verb) the winning of seven spades or more.

4. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a Black person.

---

spade ¹ British  

/ speɪd /

noun

1. a tool for digging, typically consisting of a flat rectangular steel blade attached to a long wooden handle

2. 1. an object or part resembling a spade in shape

   2. ( as modifier )

      a spade beard

3. a heavy metallic projection attached to the trail of a gun carriage that embeds itself into the ground and so reduces recoil

4. a type of oar blade that is comparatively broad and short Compare spoon

5. a cutting tool for stripping the blubber from a whale or skin from a carcass

6. to speak plainly and frankly

---

verb

1. (tr) to use a spade on

spade ² British  

/ speɪd /

noun

1. 1. the black symbol on a playing card resembling a heart-shaped leaf with a stem

   2. a card with one or more of these symbols or ( when pl ) the suit of cards so marked, usually the highest ranking of the four

2. a derogatory word for Black

3. informal in an extreme or emphatic way

---

spade More Idioms  

1. see call a spade a spade; do the spadework; in spades.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• spader
  noun
• spadelike
  adjective
• unspaded
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• spading
  present
• spaded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• spade
  simple
• spades
  simple
• have spaded
  perfect
• has spaded
  perfect
• am spading
  progressive
• are spading
  progressive
• is spading
  progressive
• have been spading
  perfect progressive
• has been spading
  perfect progressive

Past

• spaded
  simple
• had spaded
  perfect
• was spading
  progressive
• were spading
  progressive
• had been spading
  perfect progressive

Future

• will spade
  simple
• will have spaded
  perfect
• will be spading
  progressive
• will have been spading
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of spade¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English spadu, spada; cognate with Dutch spade, German Spaten, Old Norse spathi “spade”; akin to Greek spáthē “blade (of a sword, oar), spatula”; perhaps akin to Sanskrit sphyá- “shoulder blade, scapula”

Origin of spade²

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Italian, plural of spada originally, “sword,” from Latin spatha, from Greek spáthē; see origin at spade ¹

Explanation

If you're a gardener, you know that a spade is a small shovel with a short handle. A spade is perfect for planting bulbs and digging up weeds. In addition to a small digging tool, a spade is also a suit of playing card — the black one that looks a bit like an upside-down heart. There's even a card game called "Spades" in which a spade has a higher value than any other suit. The two meanings have different roots; the card suit spade comes from the Greek spathe, and the little shovel kind of spade has Proto-Germanic roots that mean "flat piece of wood."

Example Sentences

As detectives go, he’s unusually sweet, optimistic, diplomatic, willing to give a villain a way out, closer to the Man Who Fell to Earth than to Sam Spade.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 19, 2026

It’s the reason a podcast like “Fly on the Wall” with David Spade and Dana Carvey succeed at squeezing the best out of their guests who are often on somebody’s Mt.

From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2026

Tapestry TPR 2.28%increase; green up pointing triangle reported higher second-quarter revenue and raised its fiscal-year outlook as growth from its Coach brand offset declines in Kate Spade sales.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 5, 2026

Inspired by the practice of composting livestock, Spade set up a five-month pilot project with the soil science department at Washington State University.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 3, 2026

Apple Tree Planted with a Spade This apple tree was planted in the ordinary way with a spade.

From Marvels of Scientific Invention An Interesting Account in Non-technical Language of the Invention of Guns, Torpedoes, Submarine Mines, Up-to-date Smelting, Freezing, Colour Photography, and many other recent Discoveries of Science by Corbin, Thomas W.

Related Words

• shovel