spade: Meaning and Definition of

spade

Pronunciation: (spād), [key]
— n., v., spad•ed, spad•ing.
—n.
  1. a tool for digging, having an iron blade adapted for pressing into the ground with the foot and a long handle commonly with a grip or crosspiece at the top, and with the blade usually narrower and flatter than that of a shovel.
  2. some implement, piece, or part resembling this.
  3. a sharp projection on the bottom of a gun trail, designed to dig into the earth to restrict backward movement of the carriage during recoil.
  4. to call something by its real name; be candidly explicit; speak plainly or bluntly: To call a spade a spade, he's a crook.
  5. He's a hypocrite, in spades.
    1. in the extreme; positively:He's a hypocrite, in spades.
    2. without restraint; outspokenly:I told him what I thought, in spades.
—v.t.
  1. to dig, cut, or remove with a spade (sometimes fol. by up): Let's spade up the garden and plant some flowers.

spade

Pronunciation: (spād), [key]
— n.
  1. a black figure shaped like an inverted heart and with a short stem at the cusp opposite the point, used on playing cards.
  2. a card of the suit bearing such figures.
  3. Spades is trump. Spades count double.
    1. (used with a sing. or pl. v.) the suit so marked:Spades is trump. Spades count double.
    2. (used with a pl. v.) Casino. the winning of seven spades or more.
  4. . a black person.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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