gad

• IPA^(key): /ɡæd/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æd

Euphemistic alteration of God.

gad

1. An exclamation roughly equivalent to by God, goodness gracious, for goodness' sake.
   • 1905, Edith Wharton, chapter 13, in The House of Mirth:

     That's the trouble — it was too easy for you — you got reckless — thought you could turn me inside out, and chuck me in the gutter like an empty purse. But, by gad, that ain't playing fair: that's dodging the rules of the game.

• egads
• egad

From Middle English gadden (“to hurry, to rush about”).

gad (third-person singular simple present gads, present participle gadding, simple past and past participle gadded)

1. (intransitive) To move from one location to another in an apparently random and frivolous manner.

   Synonym: gallivant

   • 1852, Alice Cary, Clovernook ....‎^[2]:

     This, I suppose, is the virgin who abideth still in the house with you. She is not given, I hope, to gadding overmuch, nor to vain and foolish decorations of her person with ear-rings and finger-rings, and crisping-pins: for such are unprofitable, yea, abominable.

   • 1903, Howard Pyle, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Part III, Chapter Fourth, page 123

     So when he saw King Arthur he said: "Thou knave! Wherefore didst thou quit thy work to go a-gadding?"

   • 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter [HTTP://GUTENBERG.NET.AU/EBOOKS06/0608511H.HTML 19].”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC:

     But there is no telling the sacrament, seldom if in any case revealed to the gadding world, wherever under circumstances at all akin to those here attempted to be set forth, two of great Nature's nobler order embrace.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     If you are on the board of governors of a school and have contracted to supply an orator for the great day of the year, you can be forgiven for feeling a trifle jumpy when you learn that the silver-tongued one has gadded off to the metropolis, leaving no word as to when he will be returning, if ever.

2. (of cattle) To run with the tail in the air, bent over the back, usually in an attempt to escape the warble fly.

• gadabout
• gadder
• gaddishness

gad (plural gads)

1. One who roams about idly; a gadabout.

From Middle English gade (“a fool, simpleton, rascal, scoundrel; bastard”), from Old English *gada (“fellow, companion, comrade, associate”), from Proto-West Germanic *gadō, from Proto-Germanic *gadô, *gagadô (“companion, associate”), related to Proto-West Germanic *gaduling (“kinsman”). Cognate with Dutch gade (“spouse”), German Gatte (“male spouse, husband”). See also gadling.

• ged, gade

gad (plural gads)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, derogatory) A greedy and/or stupid person.

   Get over here, ye good-for-nothing gadǃ

   • 1913, George Gordon, The Auld Clay Biggin:

     Ye greedy ged, ye have taken the very breath out o' me.

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

From Middle English gad, gadde, borrowed from Old Norse gaddr (“goad, spike”), from Proto-Germanic *gazdaz (“spike, rod, stake”). Doublet of goad and yard.

gad (plural gads)

1. (especially UK, US, dialect) A goad, a sharp-pointed rod for driving cattle, horses, etc, or one with a whip or thong on the end for the same purpose.

   Hyponym: goad

   • 1684, Meriton, Praise Ale, l. 100, in 1851, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, The Yorkshire Anthology: A Collection of Ancient and Modern Ballads, Poems and Songs, Relating to the County of Yorkshire, page 71:

     Ist yoakes and bowes and gad and yoaksticks there?

   • c. 1844, Prairie Farmer:

     Does your cow kick? Do not fly into a passion and pound her with a handspike, or trim her with a gad or a cow-hide.

   • 1885 December 17, Detroit Free Press‎^[3]:

     Twain finds his voice after a short search for it and when he impels it forward it is a good, strong, steady voice in harness until the driver becomes absent-minded, when it stops to rest, and then the gad must be used to drive it on again.

   • 1888, “Robin Spraggon's Auld Grey Mare”, in The Monthly Chronicle of North-country Lore and Legend, page 171:

     Our thrifty dame, Mally, she rises soon at morn, She goes and tells the master I'm pulling up the corn; He clicks up the oxen gad and sair belabours me, For I'm Robin Spraggon's auld grey mare, ae how he's guided me!

   • 1908, Folklore Society (Great Britain), Publications, page 288:

     On the morning of Palm-Sunday, the gamekeeper, some servant on the estate, brings with him a large gad or whip, with a long thong; the stock is made of the mountain ash, […]

2. (UK, US, dialect) A rod or stick, such as a fishing rod or a measuring rod.
   • 1836, A Collection of Right Merrie Garlands for North Country Anglers, page 4:

     And we'll prepare our limber gads,
     Lang lines, and braw brass wheels;

   • 1876, Armstrong, Wanny Blossoms, page 33:

     Seek out thy tackle, thy creel and thy gad.

   • 1879, William Henderson, Folklore Society (Great Britain), Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders:

     Woe to the lad / without a rowen-tree gad.

   • 1896, Proudlock, Borderland Muse, page 268:

     We'll splice oor gads nigh Barra Mill, Beneath yon auld birk tree.

3. (especially mining) A pointed metal tool for breaking or chiselling rock.
   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     I will go get a leaf of brass, / And with a gad of steel will write these words.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 327:

     Frank was able to keep his eyes open long enough to check his bed with a miner's gad and douse the electric lamp

4. (obsolete) A metal bar.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XV:

     they sette uppon hym and drew oute their swerdys to have slayne hym – but there wolde no swerde byghte on hym more than uppon a gadde of steele, for the Hyghe Lorde which he served, He hym preserved.

   • 1677–1683, Joseph Moxon, “(please specify the page)”, in Mechanick Exercises, or The Doctrine of Handy-Works, […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Joseph Moxon, published 1678–1683, →OCLC:

     Flemish steel […] some in bars and some in gads.

   • 1836, Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, Or, The Astrologer: With the Author's Last Notes and Additions, page 372:

     When a man received sentence of death, he was put upon the gad as it was called, that is, secured to the bar of iron in the manner mentioned in the text. The practice subsisted in Edinburgh […]

5. (dated, metallurgy) An indeterminate measure of metal produced by a furnace, sometimes equivalent to a bloom weighing around 100 pounds.
   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 146:

     Twice a day a 'gad' of iron, i.e., a bloom weighing 1 cwt. was produced, which took from six to seven hours.

6. A spike on a gauntlet; a gadling.

   Synonyms: gadling, spike

   • 1840, Charles Henry Hartshorne, An Endeavor to Classify the Sepulchral Remains in Northamptonshire, Or, a Discourse on Funeral Monuments in that County: Delivered Before the Members of the Religious and Useful Knowledge Society, at Northampton, page 35:

     Sometimes we see the knuckles ornamented with gads or gadlings.

   • 1842, Ecclesiological Society, Illustrations of Monumental Brasses ..., page 70:

     His gauntlets have embroidered cuffs; there are gads or gadlings on the fingers.

   • 1858, Edward Cave, The Gentleman's Magazine: Or, Monthly Intelligencer: Volume the first [-fifth], for the year 1731 [-1735] ..., page 215:

     Another curious device was that of arming the knuckles of the gauntlets with spikes (gads or gadlings), by which they became weapons as well as defences.

   • 1992, Sir Guy Francis Laking, A Record of European Armour and Arms Through Seven Centuries, page 214:

     On both finger joints are gads, which are beautifully faceted and brought to a point.

• Baal-gad (etymologically unrelated)

• DAG, GDA, dag

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡad/ [ˈɡʌd]
• Hyphenation: gad

gád m (plural gadoowá f or gaditté f or gadoodá f)

1. song
2. sung poetry

• E. M. Parker, R. J. Hayward (1985) “gad”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015) L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎^[4], Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis)

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡ̊æˀð], [ˈɡ̊æðˀ]

gad

1. past of gide

Borrowed from Irish gad.

gad

1. withe
   • 1689 James Farewell, The Irish Hudibras, or, Fingallian prince taken from the sixth book of Virgil's Æneids, and adapted to the present times. (Appendix: "Alphabetical Table" of "Fingallian Words, or Irish Phrases"):

     Gad,

     A With.

From French garde.

• IPA^(key): /ɡad/

gad

1. guard

• gadò
• gadyen

gad

1. alternative form of gade (“to watch”)

• IPA^(key): /ɡɑd̪ˠ/^[1][2], /ɡad̪ˠ/^[3][4], (Cois Fharraige) [ɡaːd̪ˠ]^[5]

From Old Irish gat,^[6] from Proto-Celtic *gazdos, from late Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰasdʰos (“branch ~ spear, sharp spine”), a root also connected to Proto-Germanic *gazdaz (“spike”), Latin hasta (“spear”).

gad m (genitive singular gaid, nominative plural gaid)

1. withe
2. string, rope, band

• → Fingallian: gad

From Old Irish gataid (“to take away”).^[7] Doublet of goid.

gad (present analytic gadann, future analytic gadfaidh, verbal noun gad, past participle gadta)

1. (ambitransitive, literary) take away, remove; snatch, carry off
2. alternative form of goid (“to steal”)

gad

1. alternative form of cad

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “gad”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “gad”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 344
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “gadaim”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 344
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “gad”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “gad”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025

From Proto-Slavic *gadъ (“serpent”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡat/

gad m anim

1. (archaic) venomous snake, viper, adder

gad m inan

1. poison, venom

• Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928) “gad”, in Słownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague: ОРЯС РАН, ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, 2008
• Starosta, Manfred (1999) “gad”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag

• gadd, gadde

Borrowed from Old Norse gaddr, from Proto-Germanic *gazdaz (“spike, rod, stake”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡad/

gad (plural gads)

• English: gad

• “gad(de, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• IPA^(key): /kàt/

gad

1. juniper, cedar (especially Juniperus deppeana)

• gad diltáłii

• IPA^(key): /ɡɑːd/

From Proto-West Germanic *gaidu, from Proto-Germanic *gaidwą.

• gǣd

gād n

1. lack, want
2. desire, need

Strong a-stem:

• *ǣgǣde

From Proto-West Germanic *gaidu, from Proto-Germanic *gaidō.

• gaad

gād f

1. point, tip
2. spearhead or arrowhead
3. spike, goad

Strong ō-stem:

• Middle English: gade, gode
  • English: goad
  • Scots: gade, gaid

• gád (Przemyśl, Biecz, Żywiec)

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *gadъ.

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -at
• Syllabification: gad
• Homophone: Gad

gad m animal (augmentative (dialectal) gadzisko, related adjective gadzi)

1. reptile (cold-blooded vertebrate of the class Reptilia)
2. (Podlachia, Kielce) synonym of drób

gad m pers

1. scoundrel (villain)

• gad in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• gad in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Hieronim Łopaciński (1892) “gad”, in “Przyczynki do nowego słownika języka polskiego (słownik wyrazów ludowych z Lubelskiego i innych okolic Królestwa Polskiego”, in Prace Filologiczne (in Polish), volume 4, Warsaw: skł. gł. w Księgarni E. Wende i Ska, page 196

Unknown. Possibly from gaud (“a bar of iron; a rod”). Alternatively, compare Icelandic gaddr (“packed snow”). Attested from the 19th century.^[1]

gad (plural gads)

1. a mass of ice

Unknown. Attested from the 20th century.^[2] Compare caddle, cad (“stones used to play the game of cherry pit”). Compare also Scottish Gaelic gad (“a twig, stick”).

gad (plural gads)

1. a ball of wood or cork used to play shinty

• gads

• IPA^(key): /ɡ̊at̪/^[1]

gad

1. you (informal singular, direct object)

   Bruidhinn nas labhaire, chan eil mi gad chluinntinn ceart. ― Speak louder, I don't hear you well.

• Lenites the following word.

From Old Irish gat, from Proto-Celtic *gazdo-, from late Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰasto- or *ǵʰasdʰo- (“branch ~ spear, sharp spine”), a root also connected to Proto-Germanic *gazdaz (“spike”), Latin hasta (“spear”).

gad m (genitive singular gaid, plural gaid or gadan)

1. withy, withe

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

gad

1. alternative form of ged

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *gadъ.

gȁd m anim (Cyrillic spelling га̏д)

1. a repulsive person
2. scoundrel
3. cad
4. asshole
5. snake; lizard

gad

1. to buy

gad

1. (eastern dialect) an immature coconut

Gad or smol koknat is the third stage of coconut growth. It is preceded by giru (eastern dialect) or musu koknat (western dialect), and followed by kopespes.

Borrowed from Russian гад (gad).

gad

1. snake

Inflection of gad (inflection type 5/sana)
nominative sing.	gad
genitive sing.	gadan
partitive sing.	gadad
partitive plur.	gadoid
	singular	plural
nominative	gad	gadad
accusative	gadan	gadad
genitive	gadan	gadoiden
partitive	gadad	gadoid
essive-instructive	gadan	gadoin
translative	gadaks	gadoikš
inessive	gadas	gadoiš
elative	gadaspäi	gadoišpäi
illative	gadaha	gadoihe
adessive	gadal	gadoil
ablative	gadalpäi	gadoilpäi
allative	gadale	gadoile
abessive	gadata	gadoita
comitative	gadanke	gadoidenke
prolative	gadadme	gadoidme
approximative I	gadanno	gadoidenno
approximative II	gadannoks	gadoidennoks
egressive	gadannopäi	gadoidennopäi
terminative I	gadahasai	gadoihesai
terminative II	gadalesai	gadoilesai
terminative III	gadassai	—
additive I	gadahapäi	gadoihepäi
additive II	gadalepäi	gadoilepäi

gad (nominative plural gads)

1. garden

• IPA^(key): /ɡaːd/
• Rhymes: -aːd

gad

1. soft mutation of cad

• gadawa (colloquial)

gad

1. (literary) second-person singular imperative of gadael

• IPA^(key): [kàt]

gad

1. cedar or juniper tree, especially Juniperus deppeana.

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.