spade¹

[speyd] /speɪd/

noun

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.

some implement, piece, or part resembling this.

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), spaded, spading.

to dig, cut, or remove with a spade (sometimes followed by up):

Let's spade up the garden and plant some flowers.

Idioms

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.

in spades, Informal.

in the extreme; positively:
He's a hypocrite, in spades.
without restraint; outspokenly:
I told him what I thought, in spades.

Origin

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 forms

spadelike, adjective

spader, noun

unspaded, adjective

British Dictionary definitions for in spades

spade¹

/speɪd/

noun

a tool for digging, typically consisting of a flat rectangular steel blade attached to a long wooden handle

an object or part resembling a spade in shape
(as modifier): a spade beard

a heavy metallic projection attached to the trail of a gun carriage that embeds itself into the ground and so reduces recoil

a type of oar blade that is comparatively broad and short Compare spoon (sense 6)

a cutting tool for stripping the blubber from a whale or skin from a carcass

call a spade a spade, to speak plainly and frankly

verb

(transitive) to use a spade on

Derived Forms

spader, noun

Word Origin

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

spade²

/speɪd/

noun

the black symbol on a playing card resembling a heart-shaped leaf with a stem
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

a derogatory word for Black

(informal) in spades, in an extreme or emphatic way

Word Origin

C16: from Italian spada sword, used as an emblem on playing cards, from Latin spatha, from Greek spathē blade, broadsword

Word Origin and History for in spades

spade

"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.

"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.

Slang definitions & phrases for in spades

in spades

adverb phrase

To the utmost; in the highest degree: What Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn did for the Gulag he has now done in spades for the Soviet Union as a whole/ I detest them right back, in spades (1929+)

spade

noun

A black person: The spades inhabited Harlem and let the ofays have Wall Street to themselves

[1928+; fr the color of the playing-card symbol and fr the phrase black as the ace of spades]

Idioms and Phrases with in spades

in spades

Considerably, in the extreme; also, without restraint. For example, They were having money problems, in spades, or Jan told him what he really thought of him, in spades. This expression alludes to spades as the highest-ranking suit in various card games, such as bridge, and transfers “highest” to other extremes. [ ; 1920s ]

spade

see: