SPADE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does spade mean? 

• SPADE (noun)
  The noun SPADE has 2 senses:

1. a playing card in the major suit that has one or more black figures on it

2. a sturdy hand shovel that can be pushed into the earth with the foot

  Familiarity information: SPADE used as a noun is rare.

• SPADE (verb)
  The verb SPADE has 1 sense:

1. dig (up) with a spade

  Familiarity information: SPADE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPADE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A playing card in the major suit that has one or more black figures on it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

spades were trumps

Hypernyms ("spade" is a kind of...):

playing card (one of a pack of cards that are used to play card games)

Holonyms ("spade" is a member of...):

major suit ((bridge) a suit of superior scoring value, either spades or hearts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A sturdy hand shovel that can be pushed into the earth with the foot

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("spade" is a kind of...):

hand shovel (a shovel that is operated by hand)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spade"):

ditch spade; long-handled spade (a spade with a long handle for digging narrow ditches)

garden spade (a spade used by gardeners)

Derivation:

spade (dig (up) with a spade)

• SPADE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they spade    ... he / she / it spades   
Past simple: spaded   
Past participle: spaded   
-ing form: spading   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Dig (up) with a spade

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

I spade compost into the flower beds

Hypernyms (to "spade" is one way to...):

cut into; delve; dig; turn over (turn up, loosen, or remove earth)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "spade"):

ridge (spade into alternate ridges and troughs)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

spade (a sturdy hand shovel that can be pushed into the earth with the foot)

 Context examples 

The man ruddy and yellow-haired, stood leaning upon the spade wherewith he had been at work upon the garden patch.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

'As for you, Benjamin Gunn,' says they, 'here's a musket,' they says, 'and a spade, and pick-axe. You can stay here and find Flint's money for yourself,' they says.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I know it, for now and then I hear a far-away muffled sound as of mattock and spade, and, whatever it is, it must be the end of some ruthless villainy.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The three of spades.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Close at his heels came three laborers walking abreast, with spade and mattock over their shoulders.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“There's a strong scour with the ebb,” he said, “and this here passage has been dug out, in a manner of speaking, with a spade.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And yet I can laugh at her very grave—laugh when the clay from the spade of the sexton drop upon her coffin and say 'Thud! thud!' to my heart, till it send back the blood from my cheek.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Then perhaps canst tell me the name of a great loathly lump of a brother wi' freckled face an' a hand like a spade.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A long, straggling troop bore spades and mattocks while the two rearmost of all staggered along under a huge basket o' fresh-caught carp, for the morrow was Friday, and there were fifty platters to be filled and as many sturdy trenchermen behind them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operations from your sight.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)