spade¹ / spād/ • n. a tool with a sharp-edged, typically rectangular, metal blade and a long handle, used for digging or cutting earth, sand, turf, etc. ∎  a tool of a similar shape for another purpose, esp. one for removing the blubber from a whale. ∎  the part of the trail of a gun carriage that digs into the earth to brace the gun during recoil.• v. [tr.] dig in (ground) with a spade: while spading the soil, I think of the flowers. ∎  [tr.] move (soil) with a spade: earth is spaded into the grave.PHRASES: call a spade a spade speak plainly without avoiding unpleasant or embarrassing issues.DERIVATIVES: spade·ful / -ˌfoŏl/ n. (pl. -fuls) .spade² • n. 1. (spades) one of the four suits in a conventional deck of playing cards, denoted by a black inverted heart-shaped figure with a small stalk. ∎  (a spade) a card of this suit.2. inf., offens. a black person.PHRASES: in spades inf. to a very high degree: he got his revenge now in spades.

spade1 a long-handled tool for digging and cutting earth and turf; a spade is the emblem of St Fiacre and St Phocas. Recorded from Old English (in form spadu, spada), the word is of Germanic origin and is ultimately (like spade2) related to Greek spathē ‘blade, paddle’.
call a spade a spade speak plainly without avoiding unpleasant or embarrassing issues. The expression is recorded in English from the mid 16th century, and derives ultimately from Plutarch's Apophthegmata, which uses Greek skaphē ‘basin’. Erasmus, perhaps confusing this with derivatives of skaptein ‘dig’, rendered this as Latin ligo ‘mattock’, and Nicholas Udall, translating Erasmus in 1542, used the word spade.

spade2 one of the four suits in a conventional pack of playing cards, denoted by a black inverted heart-shaped figure with a small stalk. The word is recorded from the late 16th century, and comes from Italian spade, plural of spada ‘sword’, ultimately from Greek spathē (cf. spade1).

Spades are the highest-ranking suit in Bridge, and from this comes the informal in spades, very much, extremely.

spade2 (pl.) suit of playing cards with black spade-shaped marks. XVI. — It. spade, pl. of spada — L. spatha — Gr. spáthē (*see prec.)
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spade1 tool for digging, etc. OE. spadu, spada = OS. spado (Du. spade, spa). a word of the LG. area; rel. to Gr. spáthē blade, paddle, etc
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