/ speɪd; NAmE / noun
1.
[ C ] a garden tool with a broad metal blade and a long handle, used for digging :
Turn the soil over with a spade.
( BrE )
The children took their buckets and spades to the beach.
—compare shovel
2.
spades [ pl. , U ] one of the four sets of cards (called suits ) in a pack / deck of cards. The cards have a black design shaped like pointed leaves with short stems :
the five / queen / ace of spades
3.
[ C ] a card from the set of spades :
You must play a spade if you have one.
4.
[ C ] ( taboo , slang ) an offensive word for a black person
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IDIOMS
- in spades
—more at call verb
••
WORD ORIGIN
sense 1 Old English spadu , spada , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch spade , German Spaten , also to Greek spathē blade, paddle.
senses 2 to 3 and idsym. late 16th cent.: from Italian spade , plural of spada sword, via Latin from Greek spathē .