to spade
- verb
- /speɪd/
- Despite the weblike layer of new snow, he was spading soil energetically by the irregular flagstone walk that led to his front door.
- spading the garden
- spading the hole
- spading the soil
Examples
-
She was not the kind of woman to hang around the hospital and had gone home and resumed spading the garden as soon as she could bully the doctor into releasing her.
Fiction book (1991) -
I will press my spade through the sod and turn it up underneath.
-
I heard a noise, looked, and saw Mary Rice trying to spade some dirt to turn over some ground behind her house.
Fiction book (2000) -
We found him spading a vegetable garden behind it.
Fiction book (2002) -
Natalya was in her front yard, spading up earth.
Fiction book (1996) -
Heywood jumps in and starts spading out the hole.
Fiction book (1994) -
He spaded out a ditch all along the perimeter of the yard and filled it with forest soil.
Fiction book (1991) -
I spaded more earth into the leaks, pretending not to notice Angie waiting in the cab for the dust to settle.
Fiction book (1990) -
"His large, capable fingers reached for a handful of bulbs and carefully pressed them at intervals into the newly spaded trough.
Fiction book (1993) -
Claire was busy spading the garden to prepare it for planting.
Synonyms
To move earth with a tool to make a hole
To move or dig material with a wide blade and handle
To break and loosen soil in a garden with a long-handled flat blade
To dig and loosen soil, for example with a spade
Idioms
- Informal
To speak clearly and honestly about something even if it is unpleasant
Compounds
- Specialized
A flat drill bit with a pointed center and two sharp sides for making large holes in wood
How Deep
Surface Forms
Etymology
Spade The verb spade comes from the name of the tool: to 'spade' is to dig with a spade, so picture pushing the flat blade into the earth to move soil.