in spades
14
8.0
- idiom
- Informal
:
a raudales
- I got the goods on him in spades.
So you're giving that back to me in spades.
- So you're giving that back to me in spades.
- Those who live with regret will sow bitterness in spades.
- And we all learn those kind of things growing up as kids, and the society reinforces it in spades.
- And the thing that has come back to me the most in spades is the YouTube stuff.
- Joy like a fountain that I hadn't known that I'd had in spades before I felt left my being.
- Elon Musk has, you know, encountered this in spades.
- And Paolo has it in, you know, just in in spades.
Examples
-
You give love to other people and you get love back in spades.
-
So don't you tell me what a hard life you've had, 'cause I've had it in spades.
-
Now it seems I have it in spades.
-
You seem to have it in spades.
-
Today, we face that situation in spades.
Academic text (2010) -
What she brings: passion and commitment in spades.
Academic text (2009) -
The strain is certainly there, sometimes in spades, but it's worth it.
Academic text (2005) -
And to be honest, many of those digital promises have been fulfilled, in spades.
Academic text (2004) -
Boston's got student talent in spades, and it's time we made the most of it.
Blog text (15) -
You give love to other people, and you get love back in spades.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To a very great degree
922
1.0
To a very high degree, often about skill or rank
351
1.4
To show strong feeling or degree
350
1.0
By a very large amount
151
4.7
By a very large amount that makes it hard to refuse
129
3.1
To a very large degree
128
3.5
To a very large degree
103
3.0
By a very large amount
84
2.1
To a very great degree
70
3.5
To a very large degree
57
2.7
To a very great degree
57
4.6
To a very great degree
47
3.4
To a great degree
26
4.5
To a very high degree
21
3.5
To a very great degree
11
3.5
To a large degree
10
5.4
To a very great degree that you cannot count
7
7.2
Extremely, often in a loud or very strong way
4
8.6
To a very great degree
3
5.8
To a very large degree
3
6.1
Very extreme in every way
1
7.0
To a very high degree, showing excellent quality
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
in + spades
The sense 'to a very great degree' cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'in' + 'spades' because neither the preposition nor the noun (tool or card suit) transparently signals abundance or intensity. This is an idiomatic, historically grounded expression (likely from card/measure imagery) whose meaning is unpredictable from its parts and thus would not be obvious to a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.
Etymology
In spades may come from card games. If you held many spades or won many tricks with that suit, you had a very strong hand, so the phrase now means 'to a very great degree'.