spade
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They had been playing with a bucket and spade.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
When his successor Lyndon Johnson broke ground on the center in 1964, he did so with the same spade that had been used for the Lincoln Memorial in 1914 and the Jefferson Memorial in 1938.
From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2026
The Trump Administration can rely on intellectual spade work from Sen. Roger Wicker, and many of the ideas we’ve discussed here are in the next defense authorization bill.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 16, 2025
“I mean, call a spade a spade: Bron is on his last couple of years — however many years he decides to play,” Austin Reaves said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2025
The spade had never felt so light as it did that day.
From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park
Morris and his assistants have invested time in teaching players to play dominoes and spades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
The most electable progressives are instead happy warriors, a quality Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have in spades.
From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2026
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon celebrated the signing in April of the free trade deal with the world's most populous nation, touting an export boom that would deliver jobs and investment in spades.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
"I will keep campaigning to get spades in the ground as soon as possible so we can finally deliver this crucial project."
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
I edged over the hook and it tipped up and freed its spades.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
They spaded dirt over the plot, said a prayer and drove away.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 18, 2021
As the years went by, she never plowed, spaded or even made a compost pile.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 7, 2017
This happened on the fourth day, after a long session in which the plowed and salted earth of the Nixon era—Chile, wiretaps, Watergate—was spaded again and again.
From Time Magazine Archive
The grave was quite new, and efficiently spaded; two shovels stood stiffly at its side.
From Time Magazine Archive
She raked away our dead leaves, spaded new soil around us, and watered and fertilized.
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
President John Quincy Adams broke ground on the 185-mile Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1828, spading the first shovel of dirt just across the District line.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 23, 2017
Part of the special delight of “Ghostland” is its many informed asides, revealing Dickey’s long hours of spading up obscure facts and quotes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2016
Forked up large clods in the back garden with a spading fork.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Topeka, Kans., after spading a hole in his backyard for use as a tornado hideaway, Grist Haydon was visited by a deputy tax assessor, who placed a value of $150 on the diggings.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was easy spading, since the dirt had already been turned up once; also the manure was still in it, so I did not have to haul that again.
From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. O’Brien
Vocabulary lists containing spade
My Brother Sam is Dead
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"Digging" by Seamus Heaney
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"Digging" by Seamus Heaney
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