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• cad
  cad

  noun

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

  noun

  computer-aided design.

cad

¹ American  

[kad] / kæd /

noun

• cads
  plural

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

Derived Forms

• caddish
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cads
  plural

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

See Examples For:

cad CAD cads

The novel reads like a wintry elegy to the once proud cad.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

Handsome and popular, his bad boyfriend would be a stock cad in any other movie.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2024

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

From Salon ● Mar. 7, 2024

In the past, words or phrases deemed to have stepped over the line include "impertinent dog", "cad", "blethering", "guttersnipe" and "git".

From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2023

Notwithstanding that the devil, played by Cook, gives himself away at once by wearing red socks, the infallible mark of a cad, Dudley falls into conversation with him.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

His and Shen’s combined net income during their 10-year wealth-building period ranged from CAD $65,500 to CAD $168,680.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

"Maintenance wise, a lot of the parts for our machines simply don't exist anymore, so using modern technologies like CAD and 3D printing, we've been able to replicate some," says Nurcombe, 21.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

By month’s end, CAD Management estimates Bublé will be 9% ahead of Carey in terms of streams.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 24, 2025

The findings suggest that the gut ecosystem in people with CAD undergoes significant changes that promote inflammation and disrupt normal metabolic processes.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 12, 2025

Now the area of the triangle CAD, swept out by the radius vector in unit time, is ½bh; h being the perpendicular height of the triangle from the base AC.

From Pioneers of Science by Sir Oliver Lodge

There may be nothing princely about Bitton’s portrayal, but he’s so much more lovable than the posh cads of swankier Benedicks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2023

The character was probably based on acting colleague - and fellow portrayer of cads - Terry-Thomas.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2022

They know that some people will turn out to be cads.

From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2022

He refused to play cowards or cads and took on characters, especially in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” of almost divine goodness.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 7, 2022

And, Dicky, I don’t want to be a queen––even to get revenge upon the cads who haven’t been nice.

From The Web of the Golden Spider by Harrison Fisher