Spade
[speɪd] or [sped]
Definition
(noun.) a sturdy hand shovel that can be pushed into the earth with the foot.
(noun.) a playing card in the major suit that has one or more black figures on it; 'she led a low spade'; 'spades were trumps'.
(verb.) dig (up) with a spade; 'I spade compost into the flower beds'.
Typed by Debora--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A hart or stag three years old.
(n.) A castrated man or beast.
(n.) An implement for digging or cutting the ground, consisting usually of an oblong and nearly rectangular blade of iron, with a handle like that of a shovel.
(n.) One of that suit of cards each of which bears one or more figures resembling a spade.
(n.) A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.
(v. t.) To dig with a spade; to pare off the sward of, as land, with a spade.
Typist: Rodger
Definition
n. a broad blade of iron with a handle used for digging: a playing-card of one of the two black suits shaped like a heart with a triangular handle.—v.t. to dig with a spade.—ns. Spade′-bone the scapula; Spade′-foot a scaphiopod or spade-footed toad; Spade′ful as much as a spade will hold; Spade′-guin′ea a guinea coined 1787-99 so called from the shield on the reverse side having the shape of the spade in playing-cards.—Call a spade a spade to call things by their plain names without softening: to speak out plainly.
n. a eunuch: a gelding.—Also Spā′do.
Edited by Bryan
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of a kind of shovel called spade, denotes that you will have work to complete, which will give you much annoyance in superintending. If you dream of cards named spades, you will be enticed into follies which will bring you grief and misfortune. For a gambler to dream that spades are trumps, means that unfortunate deals will deplete his winnings.
Checker: Wilbur
Examples
- Is the man born yet, is the spade wrought yet? Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Soon he discovered a spade hidden by the underbrush which they had laid upon the grave. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- Instead of entering the house at once he fetched a spade from a little shed and began to work in the garden. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Tired, I suppose, with her importunity, he threw down his spade, approached, and pushed the door ajar. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- One of them ran for a spade; the other two assisted George to carry the body to the wagon. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- With such a history how could a nation fail to see in its constitution anything but a tool of life, like the axe, the spade or the plough? Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- All was now ready for the pick and spade. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Where are the digger and the spade, this peaceful night, destined to add the last great secret to the many secrets of the Tulkinghorn existence? Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The lantern, the spade, and the wicker bottle were found, that day, in the churchyard. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- It is a device as necessary to the industrial growth of man as the axe or the spade. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Clubs, not spades, are trumps, said Lawrence. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- A child sees persons with whom he lives using chairs, hats, tables, spades, saws, plows, horses, money in certain ways. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- There were ploughs which were made heavy or light as the different soils required, and there were a variety of farm implements, such as spades, hoes, harrows and rakes. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- And then our spades showed us that SOMETHING had been buried beneath the corpse, for a hole had been there and it had been filled with loose earth. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- He had no tools to work with except those of the pioneers--axes, picks, and spades. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
Checked by Anita