spade
noun /speɪd/
/speɪd/
Idioms - [countable] a garden tool with a broad metal part and a long handle, used for digging
enlarge image- Turn the soil over with a spade.
- (British English) The children took their buckets and spades to the beach.
Extra ExamplesTopics Gardensc1- There was a garden spade in the shed.
- children playing in the sand with their buckets and spades
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- garden
- use
- bucket and spade
- call a spade a spade
enlarge imagespades[plural, uncountable] one of the four suits (= sets) in a pack of cards. The cards have a black design with shapes like pointed leaves with short stems.- the five/queen/ace of spades
- [countable] one card from the suit called spades
- You must play a spade if you have one.
- [countable] (taboo, slang) an offensive word for a black person
Word Originsense 1 Old English spadu, spada, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch spade, German Spaten, also to Greek spathē ‘blade, paddle’.senses 2 to 3 late 16th cent.: from Italian spade, plural of spada ‘sword’, via Latin from Greek spathē.
Idioms
call a spade a spade
- to say exactly what you think without trying to hide your opinion
- I believe in calling a spade a spade.
in spades
- (informal) in large amounts or to a great degree
- He'd got his revenge now, and in spades.