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definitions

spade

1
[speyd]
See more synonyms for spade on Thesaurus.com
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), spad·ed, spad·ing.
  1. to dig, cut, or remove with a spade (sometimes followed by up): 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, Informal.
    1. in the extreme; positively: He's a hypocrite, in spades.
    2. without restraint; outspokenly: I told him what I thought, in spades.

Origin of spade

1
before 900; Middle English (noun); Old English spadu; cognate with Dutch spade, German Spaten, Old Norse spathi spade, Greek spáthē broad, flat piece of wood
Related formsspade·like, adjectivespad·er, nounun·spad·ed, adjective
Can be confusedspade spay
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for spading

gouge, lift, dig, scrape, remove, scoop, inquire, burrow, unearth, search, shovel, drill, dredge, discover, penetrate, exhume, bulldoze, sift, clean, enter

Examples from the Web for spading

Historical Examples of spading

  • She had seen him spading in the orchard, and if Miss Lydia wanted to carry up the towels!

    The Prisoner

    Alice Brown

  • Evidently Anne intended to have no spading at random in a fair green orchard.

    The Prisoner

    Alice Brown

  • Its spading was a complicated business and it lay too far off to permit of conversation.

    Jerry

    Jean Webster

  • If Dominick can't find time to do the spading we'll just let it go.

    Torchy As A Pa

    Sewell Ford

  • He turned into his garden and watched Max, the robot, spading in the petunia bed.

    Cerebrum

    Albert Teichner

British Dictionary definitions for spading

spade

1
noun
  1. a tool for digging, typically consisting of a flat rectangular steel blade attached to a long wooden handle
    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 shortCompare spoon (def. 6)
  5. a cutting tool for stripping the blubber from a whale or skin from a carcass
  6. call a spade a spade to speak plainly and frankly
verb
  1. (tr) to use a spade on
Derived Formsspader, noun

Word Origin for spade

Old English spadu; related to Old Norse spathi, Old High German spato, Greek spathē blade

spade

2
noun
    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. in spades informal in an extreme or emphatic way

Word Origin for spade

C16: from Italian spada sword, used as an emblem on playing cards, from Latin spatha, from Greek spathē blade, broadsword
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for spading

spade

n.1

"tool for digging," Old English spadu, from Proto-Germanic *spadon (cf. Old Frisian spada, Middle Dutch spade, Old Saxon spado, Middle Low German spade, German Spaten), from PIE *spe- "long, flat piece of wood" (cf. Greek spathe "wooden blade, paddle," Old English spon "chip of wood, splinter," Old Norse spann "shingle, chip").

To call a spade a spade "use blunt language, call things by right names" (1540s) translates a Greek proverb (known to Lucian), ten skaphen skaphen legein "to call a bowl a bowl," but Erasmus mistook Greek skaphe "trough, bowl" for a derivative of the stem of skaptein "to dig," and the mistake has stuck.

spade

n.2

"figure on playing cards," 1590s, probably from Italian spade, plural of spada "sword, spade," from Latin spatha "broad, flat weapon or tool," from Greek spathe "broad blade" (see spade (n.1)). Phrase in spades "in abundance" first recorded 1929 (Damon Runyon), probably from bridge, where spades are the highest-ranking suit.

The invitations to the musicale came sliding in by pairs and threes and spade flushes. [O.Henry, "Cabbages & Kings," 1904]

Derogatory meaning "black person" is 1928, from the color of the playing card symbol.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with spading

spade

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

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.