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.

some implement, piece, or part resembling this.

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.

to dig, cut, or remove with a spade (sometimes fol. by up )

Let's spade up the garden and plant some flowers.

call a spade a spade

to call something by its real name; be candidly explicit; speak plainly or bluntly

To call a spade a spade, he's a crook.

in spades

Informal .

in the extreme; positively

He's a hypocrite, in spades.

without restraint; outspokenly

I told him what I thought, in spades.

verb

delve , excavate , grub , scoop , shovel

noun

dig , playing card , shovel , spud (narrow , suit , tool , with long handle)