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

• egads
• egad

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

• gallivant

Derived terms

• gadabout
• gaddish, gaddishness

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

• ged, gade

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

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

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

• DAG, dag, GDA

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

• Lenites the following word.

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

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• gadawa (colloquial)

Verb

gad

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

Mutation