cad

¹ American  

[kad] / kæd /

noun

1. an ill-bred man, especially one who behaves in a dishonorable or irresponsible way toward women.

   Synonyms:

   heel, rogue, rascal, rotter, bounder

2. British Archaic.

   1. a local town boy or youth, as contrasted with a university or public school student.

   2. a servant at a university or public school.

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CAD ² American  

[kad] / kæd /

noun

1. computer-aided design.

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CAD ¹ British  

acronym

1. computer-aided design

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cad ² British  

/ kæd /

noun

1. informal a man who does not behave in a gentlemanly manner towards others

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Other Word Forms

• caddish adjective

Etymology

Origin of cad

First recorded in 1780–90; short for caddie (in the sense “a person who runs errands and does odd jobs”)

Explanation

A cad is a man who is not gentlemanly or honorable, especially toward a woman. He asked the waitress for her phone number and left you with the check? That cad! Also known as a rake, a scoundrel, a rascal, or a heel, a cad is not a guy you want to be around too long. The word cad came from the word cadet, meaning a "servant." Later cad came to be a derogatory term used by students at British universities, referring to boys from local towns. Don’t confuse the word cad with the acronym CAD, meaning "computer-aided design."

Example Sentences

Andrew, who is 12 years younger than Charles, was long considered the family’s amiable cad.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025

Forty-five years after Paul Schrader immortalized Richard Gere as an “American Gigolo,” he’s cast him again as a rather run-of-the-mill American cad.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2024

Paul is a bit of cad, and not even entertainingly awful.

From New York Times • Mar. 15, 2024

The underdog here is Mark Ruffalo, whose comic turn as the cad Duncan Wedderburn in "Poor Things."

From Salon • Mar. 7, 2024

“Oh, come on, Grummore. I do think you are a cad not to yield You know very well I can’t cut your head off.”

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White