spade

• WordNet 3.6
  • v spade dig (up) with a spade "I spade compost into the flower beds"
  • n spade a sturdy hand shovel that can be pushed into the earth with the foot
  • n spade a playing card in the major suit that has one or more black figures on it "she led a low spade","spades were trumps"
  • n spade (ethnic slur) extremely offensive name for a Black person "only a Black can call another Black a nigga"
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• Interesting fact: Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, Diamonds - Julius Caesar
• • Spade A castrated man or beast.
  • Spade A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.
  • Spade (Zoöl) A hart or stag three years old.
  • Spade 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."
  • Spade One of that suit of cards each of which bears one or more figures resembling a spade. "“Let spades be trumps!” she said."
  • v. t Spade spād To dig with a spade; to pare off the sward of, as land, with a spade.
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• Interesting fact: The symbols used on playing cards were supposed to represent the four classes of men: hearts represented the clergy; spades (from the Spanish word espada, or sword) represented the warriors; clubs were originally leaves and represented the peasants; and citizens and merchants were recognized in the diamonds.
• • n spade A tool for digging and cutting the ground, having a rather thick iron blade, usually flat, so formed that its terminal edge (either straight or curved) may be pressed into the ground or other resisting substance with one foot, and a handle, usually with a crosspiece at the top, to be grasped by both hands. A spade differs from a two-handed shovel chiefly in the form and thickness of the blade.
  • n spade A tool of soft iron used with diamond-powder by cameo-cutters in finishing.
  • n spade In whaling, a large chisel-like implement used on blubber or bone in cutting-in. See phrases following.
  • n spade In herpetology, a formation on the foot of some toads with which they dig. See spade-fool.
  • spade To dig or cut with a spade; dig up (the ground) by menns of a spade.
  • spade In whaling, to use the boat-spade on, as a whale; cut the tendons of the flukes of; hamstring.
  • n spade A playing-card of one of the two black suits of a pack, the other being clubs.
  • n spade An emasculated person; a eunuch.
  • n spade An emasculated animal; a gelding.
  • n spade In artillery, a thick metal projection at the end of the trail of a field-gun carriage, which is forced into the ground by the recoil and tends to keep the carriage in the same position for subsequent rounds.
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• Interesting fact: Each of the suits on a deck of cards represents the four major pillars of the economy in the middle ages: heart represented the Church, spades represented the military, clubs represented agriculture, and diamonds represented the merchant class.
• • n Spade spād 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 Spade to dig with a spade
  • n Spade spād a eunuch: a gelding
  • Spade Also Spā′do
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• John Ruskin

  

  “To watch the corn grow, or the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over the plough or spade; to read, to think, to love, to pray, are the things that make men happy.”
• Oscar Wilde

  

  “I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.”

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