Link Centre Dictionary

spade

UK/speɪ̯d/ US/sped/ fairly common
noun (3) verb (1)

noun

1.

a playing card in the major suit of spades

2.

a sturdy hand shovel that can be pushed into the earth with the foot

3.

(ethnic slur) offensive name for a Black person

  • “only a Black can call another Black a nigga”
Synonyms

verb

1.

dig (up) with a spade

  • “I spade compost into the flower beds”

Origin

Probably from Italian spade, plural of spada (“the ace of spades”, literally “sword, spade”), from earlier *spata, from Latin spatha, from Ancient Greek σπᾰ́θη (spắthē). Cognate with Etymology 1. So called for the shape, though what the shape was exactly meant to represent has been debated.

Phrases

  • bucket and spade
  • call a spade a shovel
  • call a spade a spade
  • call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel
  • call a spade a spade, not a big spoon
  • peat spade
  • spade foot
  • spade fork

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.