Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Gad

Gad

,
Noun.
[OE.
gad
, Icel.
gaddr
goad, sting; akin to Sw.
gadd
sting, Goth.
gazds
, G.
gerte
switch. See
Yard
a measure.]
1.
The point of a spear, or an arrowhead.
2.
A pointed or wedge-shaped instrument of metal, as a steel wedge used in mining, etc.
I will go get a leaf of brass,
And with a
gad
of steel will write these words.
Shakespeare
3.
A sharp-pointed rod; a goad.
4.
A spike on a gauntlet; a gadling.
Fairholt.
5.
A wedge-shaped billet of iron or steel.
[Obs.]
Flemish steel . . . some in bars and some in
gads
.
Moxon.
6.
A rod or stick, as a fishing rod, a measuring rod, or a rod used to drive cattle with.
[Prov. Eng. Local, U.S.]
Halliwell. Bartlett.
Upon the gad
,
upon the spur of the moment; hastily.
[Obs.]
“All this done upon the gad!
Shak.

Gad

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Gadded
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Gadding
.]
[Prob. fr.
gad
,
Noun.
, and orig. meaning
to drive about
.]
To walk about; to rove or go about, without purpose; hence, to run wild; to be uncontrolled.
“The gadding vine.”
Milton.
Why
gaddest
thou about so much to change thy way?
Jer. ii. 36.

Webster 1828 Edition


Gad

GAD

, n.
1.
A wedge or ingot of steel.
2.
A style or graver.
3.
A punch of iron with a wooden handle, used by miners.

GAD

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To walk about; to rove or ramble idly or without any fixed purpose.
Give the water no passage, neither a wicked woman liberty to gad abroad.
2.
To ramble in growth; as the gadding vine.

Definition 2024


gad

gad

See also: Gad, GAD, and gàd

English

Interjection

gad

  1. An exclamatory interjection roughly equivalent to 'by God', 'goodness gracious', 'for goodness' sake'.
    1905 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. — Edith Wharton, House of Mirth.
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Middle English gadden (to hurry, to rush about).

Verb

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.
    • 1852, Alice Cary, Clovernook ....
      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.
    • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 19,
      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 1227855:
      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.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English gade (a fool, rascal, scoundrel; bastard), from Old English gāda (fellow, companion, comrade, associate). Cognate with Dutch gade (spouse), German Gatte (male spouse, husband). See also gadling.

Alternative forms

Noun

gad (plural gads)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland, derogatory) A greedy and/or stupid person.
    • Jamieson, John (1825)
      He's a perfect gad for silver.
    • Gordon, George (1913)
      Ye greedy ged, ye have taken the very breath out o' me.
    Get over here, ye good-for-nothing gadǃ

References

Etymology 4

From Old Norse gaddr (goad, spike).

Noun

gad (plural gads)

  1. A sharp-pointed object; a goad.
    • 1885, Detroit Free Press., December 17
      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.
  2. (obsolete) A metal bar.
    • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, 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.
    • Moxon
      Flemish steel [] some in bars and some in gads.
  3. A pointed metal tool for breaking or chiselling rock, especially in mining.
    • Shakespeare
      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 2007, p. 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. (dated, metallurgy) An indeterminate measure of metal produced by a furnace, perhaps equivalent to the bloom, perhaps weighing around 100 pounds.
    • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 146.
      Twice a day a 'gad' of iron, i.e., a bloom weighing 1 cwt. was produced, which took from six to seven hours.
  5. A spike on a gauntlet; a gadling.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Fairholt to this entry?)
  6. (Britain, US, dialect) A rod or stick, such as a fishing rod, a measuring rod, or a rod used to drive cattle with.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)

Translations

Anagrams


Danish

Verb

gad

  1. past tense of gide

Lojban

Rafsi

gad

  1. rafsi of gadri.

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gadъ (serpent)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡat/

Noun

gad m

  1. (archaic) venomous snake, viper, adder
  2. poison, venom

Declension

Animate declension (‘venomous snake, viper, adder’):

Inanimate declension (‘poison, venom’):


Navajo

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [kɑ̀t]~[kɣɑ̀t]

Noun

gad

  1. juniper, cedar

Polish

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gadъ

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ɡat]

Noun

gad m anim

  1. reptile

Declension


Scottish Gaelic

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kat̪/

Pronoun

gad

  1. you (informal singular, direct object)
    Bruidhinn nas labhaire, chan eil mi gad chluinntinn ceart. ― Speak louder, I don't hear you well.

Usage notes

Related terms

Noun

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

  1. withy, withe

Conjunction

gad

  1. Alternative form of ged

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gadъ

Noun

gȁd m (Cyrillic spelling га̏д)

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

Declension


Somali

Verb

gad

  1. to buy

Torres Strait Creole

Noun

gad

  1. (eastern dialect) An immature coconut.

Usage notes

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.


Veps

Noun

gad

  1. snake

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.


Volapük

Noun

gad (plural gads)

  1. garden

Declension

Derived terms


Welsh

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡɑːd/

Etymology 1

Noun

gad

  1. Soft mutation of cad.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
cad gad nghad chad
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

  • gadawa (colloquial)

Verb

gad

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

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
gad ad ngad unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.