spade

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
spade1

▶noun

• 1 a tool with a sharp-edged, rectangular metal blade and a long handle, used for digging.

• 2 [as modifier] shaped like a spade: a spade bit.

▶verb dig over with a spade.

■ move or lift with a spade.

– phrases
call a spade a spade speak plainly and frankly.

– derivatives
spadeful noun (pl. spadefuls).

– origin OE spadu, spada, of Gmc origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
spade2

▶noun

• 1 (spades) one of the four suits in a conventional pack of playing cards, denoted by a black inverted heart-shaped figure with a small stalk.

  ■ (a spade) a card of this suit.

• 2 informal, offensive a black person.

– phrases
in spades informal in large amounts or to a high degree.

– origin C16: from Ital. spade, pl. of spada ‘sword’, via L. from Gk spathē; cf. spade1.