Spade (?), n. [Cf. Spay, n.]

1. Zool.

A hart or stag three years old.

[Written also spaid, spayade.]

2. [Cf. L. spado.]

A castrated man or beast.

 

© Webster 1913.


Spade, n. [AS. spaed; spada; akin to D. spade, G. spaten, Icel. spa&edh;i, Dan. & Sw. spade, L. spatha a spatula, a broad two-edged sword, a spathe, Gr. spa`qh. Cf. 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."

Milton.

2. [Sp. espada, literally, a sword; -- so caused because these cards among the Spanish bear the figure of a sword. Sp. espada is fr. L. spatha, Gr. spa`qh. See the Etymology above.]

One of that suit of cards each of which bears one or more figures resembling a spade.

"Let spades be trumps!" she said. Pope.

3.

A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.

Spade bayonet, a bayonet with a broad blade which may be used digging; -- called also trowel bayonet. -- Spade handle Mach., the forked end of a connecting rod in which a pin is held at both ends. See Illust. of Knuckle joint, under Knuckle.

 

© Webster 1913.


Spade (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spaded; p. pr. & vb. n. Spading.]

To dig with a spade; to pare off the sward of, as land, with a spade.

 

© Webster 1913.