"in spades" meaning in English

See in spades in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

IPA: /ɪn ˈspeɪds/ [General-American, Received-Pronunciation] Audio: en-au-in spades.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: From the card game of bridge, in which spades is the highest suit. Perhaps influenced by phrases with similar meaning, in spadefuls or in spate. Etymology templates: {{m|en||in spadefuls}} in spadefuls, {{m|en|in spate}} in spate Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} in spades, {{en-PP}} in spades
  1. (idiomatic) In large quantities; to a high degree; to excess, without restraint. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Card games Synonyms: in droves, abundantly, but good
    Sense id: en-in_spades-en-prep_phrase-7xK4RKFi Disambiguation of Card games: 85 15 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 92 8 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 79 21 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 83 17
  2. (idiomatic) Beyond doubt. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-in_spades-en-prep_phrase-qovVc0L5

Download JSON data for in spades meaning in English (3.6kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "",
        "3": "in spadefuls"
      },
      "expansion": "in spadefuls",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "in spate"
      },
      "expansion": "in spate",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the card game of bridge, in which spades is the highest suit. Perhaps influenced by phrases with similar meaning, in spadefuls or in spate.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
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      "expansion": "in spades",
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    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "in spades",
      "name": "en-PP"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "92 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "79 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
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        {
          "_dis": "83 17",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "85 15",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Card games",
          "orig": "en:Card games",
          "parents": [
            "Games",
            "Recreation",
            "Human activity",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Last year we harvested almost no potatoes, but this year we're getting them in spades.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1954, Richard [Pike] Bissell, High Water (Atlantic Monthly Press Book), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, OCLC 760577; republished St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society, 1987, ISBN 978-0-87351-221-3, page 115",
          "text": "\"He is three times that bad in spades,\" I said. \"He ain't washed his socks in four months for one thing,\" […]"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993 June 23, Patricia Leigh Brown, “Yellowstone’s landmark in logs”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2016-04-28",
          "text": "Character the hotel has in spades. It begins at the parking lot, where bison roam.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 December 8, Justin Fox, “The top 10 everything of 2009: Top 10 best business deals: 2. JPMorgan Chase and the deals it didn't do”, in Time, archived from the original on 2016-04-23",
          "text": "This caution hurt JPMorgan's profits at the time but paid off in spades in 2009, as the bank earned $8.5 billion in the first three quarters.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In large quantities; to a high degree; to excess, without restraint."
      ],
      "id": "en-in_spades-en-prep_phrase-7xK4RKFi",
      "links": [
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        [
          "degree",
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        ],
        [
          "excess",
          "excess"
        ],
        [
          "restraint",
          "restraint"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) In large quantities; to a high degree; to excess, without restraint."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "in droves"
        },
        {
          "word": "abundantly"
        },
        {
          "word": "but good"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "Beyond doubt."
      ],
      "id": "en-in_spades-en-prep_phrase-qovVc0L5",
      "links": [
        [
          "Beyond",
          "beyond"
        ],
        [
          "doubt",
          "doubt"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Beyond doubt."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɪn ˈspeɪds/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-in spades.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/da/En-au-in_spades.ogg/En-au-in_spades.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/En-au-in_spades.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "in spades"
}
{
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    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "en:Card games"
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  "etymology_templates": [
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "in spate"
      },
      "expansion": "in spate",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the card game of bridge, in which spades is the highest suit. Perhaps influenced by phrases with similar meaning, in spadefuls or in spate.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
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    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "in spades",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
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        {
          "text": "Last year we harvested almost no potatoes, but this year we're getting them in spades.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1954, Richard [Pike] Bissell, High Water (Atlantic Monthly Press Book), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, OCLC 760577; republished St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society, 1987, ISBN 978-0-87351-221-3, page 115",
          "text": "\"He is three times that bad in spades,\" I said. \"He ain't washed his socks in four months for one thing,\" […]"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993 June 23, Patricia Leigh Brown, “Yellowstone’s landmark in logs”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2016-04-28",
          "text": "Character the hotel has in spades. It begins at the parking lot, where bison roam.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 December 8, Justin Fox, “The top 10 everything of 2009: Top 10 best business deals: 2. JPMorgan Chase and the deals it didn't do”, in Time, archived from the original on 2016-04-23",
          "text": "This caution hurt JPMorgan's profits at the time but paid off in spades in 2009, as the bank earned $8.5 billion in the first three quarters.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In large quantities; to a high degree; to excess, without restraint."
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          "quantities",
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        [
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          "excess"
        ],
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          "restraint",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) In large quantities; to a high degree; to excess, without restraint."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "in droves"
        },
        {
          "word": "abundantly"
        },
        {
          "word": "but good"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
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      "categories": [
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      "glosses": [
        "Beyond doubt."
      ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Beyond doubt."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
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  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɪn ˈspeɪds/",
      "tags": [
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      "audio": "en-au-in spades.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/da/En-au-in_spades.ogg/En-au-in_spades.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/En-au-in_spades.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "in spades"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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