I. ˈspəd noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English spudde; perhaps akin to Old English spadu, spædu spade — more at spade
1. obsolete : a short knife : dagger
2. : any of various tools or mechanical devices like a spade or a chisel and with a short, thick or widened, and often curved blade: as
a.
(1) : a sharp narrow spade sometimes with prongs instead of a smooth blade commonly having a long handle and used especially for digging up large-rooted weeds
(2) : a similarly shaped implement used for removing the bark from timber
b. : a small shovel with a crowbar point on one end used for digging holes under stumps — called also stump spud
c.
(1) : a broad-bladed socketed stone or metal tool typical of midwestern and eastern No. America
(2) : a socketed spearhead that is slipped on the end of a lath for spearing tobacco
d. : a long-handled chisel used for cutting holes through the ice
e.
(1) : a small instrument shaped like a spade for removing foreign bodies especially from the eye
(2) : such an instrument for removing wax from the ear
f. : a reamer for enlarging a well around lost tools so that fishing tools can go over the lost article
g. : spade lug
3. : potato
4.
a. : one of usually four sharp-pointed vertical posts or piles that can be forced by a tackle or by power through a socket in a floating or a land dredge or scow to anchor it
b. : one of the two foot pieces of the legs of the A-frame of a floating dipper dredge that are set in the banks of the ditch to steady the dredge and give it support
5.
a. : a short connecting piece (as a piece of pipe between a cock and a supply pipe)
b. : a short thick insert or projection (as from a valve or ceramic piece) to which some other part is screwed
6. : percussion drilling used in starting a well in which a line is used to impart an up-and-down motion to the cable holding the tools to cause them to rise and fall
II. verb
( spudded ; spudded ; spudding ; spuds )
transitive verb
1. : to dig, remove, or otherwise treat with a spud
spudding up weeds
2. : to begin to drill (an oil well) by alternately raising and releasing a spudding bit with the drilling rig
honor those who helped spud America's first great gusher — Christian Science Monitor
— often used with in
expected that the well will be spudded in before the end of July — Wall Street Journal
an agreement to spud in the first well within 30 days — Upton Sinclair
3. : to scrape off (as burrs caused by punching or reaming) around holes
4. : to anchor or hold steady (as a derrick or dredge) by means of spuds
placed in position on the bay bottom and spudded in place by H-piles driven within the pipes — P.A.Hakman
intransitive verb
1. : to dig with a spud
2. : to begin to drill an oil well with a spudding bit
company has spudded and yesterday was drilling at 582 feet — Los Angeles (Calif.) Examiner
— often used with in
the driller got busy … spudding in through the soft, wet earth — Lamp