Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Spade

Spade (spād), n. [Cf. Spay, n.] 1. (Zoöl.) A hart or stag three years old. [Written also spaid, spayade.]

2. [Cf. L. spado.] A castrated man or beast.

Spade, n. [AS. spæd; spada; akin to D. spade, G. spaten, Icel. spaði, Dan. & Sw. spade, L. spatha a spatula, a broad two-edged sword, a spathe, Gr. σπάθη. 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. σπάθη. 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.

Spade (spād), 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’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.