/speɪ̯d/, /sped/
OriginFrom Middle English spade, from Old English spada, spade, spadu (“spade”), from Proto-Germanic *spadô. Doublet of spatha, spathe, and épée.
- A garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging. Not to be confused with a shovel which is used for moving earth or other materials.
“'Make your mind easy,' Ratsey said; 'I have dug too often in this graveyard for any to wonder if they see me with a spade.'”
“"[...] And not a single spade has gone in the ground - not a single mile of track built."”
- A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.
- A device for terminating an electrical conductor resembling a small spade.
- A playing card marked with the symbol ♠.
“I've got only one spade in my hand.”
- To turn over soil with a spade to loosen the ground for planting.
- form-of, obsolete, participle, pastsimple past and past participle of spay
Formsspades(plural) · spades(present, singular, third-person) · spading(participle, present) · spaded(participle, past) · spaded(past) · Spades(plural)