A spade is a sharp-edged tool, usually with a rectangular-shaped blade and a long wooden handle, it is used for cutting into the dirt for purposes of edging flowerbeds and lawns and other horticultural activities. Spade may also be used as a transitive verb, which is a verb that takes an object, to describe digging in the ground with a spade. Related words are spades, spaded and spading. Spades is one of the four suits of playing cards, represented by a stylized black pip. Spade comes from the Old Engish word spadu.
Spayed is the past tense of the verb spay, which means to sterilize a female animal. Spayed is a transitive verb, which is a verb that takes an object. Related words are spay, spays and spaying. Spayed appears in the 1400s, derived from the Old French espeer, which means stab with a sword, kill, and also remove the ovaries of a hunting dog.
Examples
Investigators have found a blood-stained spade from Lisseux Carmelite Convent in Palai, where a Catholic nun was found dead on Thursday, 17 September. The spade has been sent for forensic analysis. (The International Business Times)
In total, more than three-and-a-half million people were left sat in front of blank screens and error codes after the then-75-year-old sank her spade into the backbone cable. (The Daily Express)
“My partner shifted to the queen of clubs,” the Cynic said. “Declarer won and took three more diamonds to discard a spade” (The San Jose Mercury News)
For pets spayed/neutered costs are $20 for the one-year rabies vaccination and Lake County tag, and $25 for the one-year rabies vaccination, tag and distemper (The Chicago Tribune)
Spaying is the removing of the ovaries and uterus of the female animal, and neutering is the removal of the testicles of a male animal. (The Ledger-Enquirer)
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