Spade
Spade , noun
[Compare Spay, n.]
1.
(Zoology) A hart or stag three years old.
2.
A castrated man or beast.
Spade , noun
[Anglo-Saxon spaed; spada; akin to Dutch spade, German spaten, Icelandic spaei, Danish & Swedish spade, Latin spatha a spatula, a broad two-edged sword, a spathe, Greek spa`qh. Compare Epaulet, Spade at cards, Spathe, Spatula.]
1.
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.
With spade and pickax armed.
2.
One of that suit of cards each of which bears one or more figures resembling a spade.
“Let spades be trumps!” she said.
3.
A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.
Collocations (2)
Spade bayonet , a bayonet with a broad blade which may be used digging; -- called also trowel bayonet.
Spade handle (Machinery) , the forked end of a connecting rod in which a pin is held at both ends. See Illust. of Knuckle joint, under Knuckle.
Spade (spād) , transitive verb
To dig with a spade; to pare off the sward of, as land, with a spade.