gad

See also: Gad, GAD, and gàd

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡæd/
• Rhymes: -æd

Etymology 1

Taboo deformation of God.

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

From 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.

   • 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?"

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 19, [1]

     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.

   Synonym: gallivant

Derived terms

• gadabout
• gaddish, gaddishness

Translations

to move about at random with seemingly little purpose

• Bulgarian: скитам се (skitam se), шляя се (šljaja se)
• Galician: vagar (gl)

• Maori: kaihanu, tihoi
• Russian: слоня́ться (ru) (slonjátʹsja), шля́ться (ru) (šljátʹsja)

Noun

gad (plural gads)

1. one who roams about idly; a gadabout

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

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 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.

   • 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, dialectal) 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

A sharp-pointed object; a goad

• Bulgarian: шип (bg) m (šip), острие (bg) n (ostrie)

Anagrams

• DAG, GDA, dag

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Danish

Verb

gad

1. past tense of gide

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Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish gat.

Noun

gad m (genitive singular gaid, nominative plural gaid)

1. withe
2. string, rope, band
3. Obsolete spelling of goid
4. Obsolete spelling of cad

Declension

Declension of gad

First declension

Bare forms: Case Singular Plural Nominative gad gaid Vocative a ghaid a ghada Genitive gaid gad Dative gad gaid

Forms with the definite article: Case Singular Plural Nominative an gad na gaid Genitive an ghaid na ngad Dative leis an ngad don ghad leis na gaid

Derived terms

Derived terms

• gad bráid m (“scrofula”)

• gad tairr m (“bellyband, cinch”)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
gad	ghad	ngad
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• "gad" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• “gad” in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, Irish Texts Society, 1st ed., 1904, by Patrick S. Dinneen, page 344.
• “gat” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.
• Entries containing “gad” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

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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’):

Declension of gad

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	gad	gada	gady
Genitive	gada	gadowu	gadow
Dative	gadoju	gadoma	gadam
Accusative	gada	gadowu	gady, gadow
Instrumental	gadom	gadoma	gadami
Locative	gaźe	gadoma	gadach

Inanimate declension (‘poison, venom’):

Declension of gad

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	gad	gada	gady
Genitive	gada	gadowu	gadow
Dative	gadoju	gadoma	gadam
Accusative	gad	gada	gady
Instrumental	gadom	gadoma	gadami
Locative	gaźe	gadoma	gadach

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Navajo

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kàt/, [kàt], [kɣàt]

Noun

gad

1. juniper, cedar (especially Juniperus deppeana)

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Polish

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gadъ

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡat/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

gad m anim

1. reptile

Declension

declension of gad

	singular	plural
nominative	gad	gady
genitive	gada	gadów
dative	gadowi	gadom
accusative	gada	gady
instrumental	gadem	gadami
locative	gadzie	gadach
vocative	gadzie	gady

Further reading

• gad in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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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

Terms related to gad

• ga
• gam

• gan
• gar

• gur
• iad

• tu

Noun

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

1. withy, withe

Conjunction

gad

1. Alternative form of ged

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical	Lenition
gad	ghad
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gadъ

Noun

gȁd m (Cyrillic spelling га̏д)

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

Declension

Declension of gad

	singular	plural
nominative	gad	gadovi
genitive	gada	gadova
dative	gadu	gadovima
accusative	gada	gadove
vocative	gade	gadovi
locative	gadu	gadovima
instrumental	gadom	gadovima

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Somali

Verb

gad

1. to buy

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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.

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Veps

Noun

gad

1. snake

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

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Volapük

Noun

gad (plural gads)

1. garden

Declension

declension of gad

	singular	plural
nominative	gad	gads
genitive	gada	gadas
dative	gade	gades
accusative	gadi	gadis
vocative 1	o gad!	o gads!
predicative 2	gadu	gadus

• ¹ status as a case is disputed
• ² in some later, non-classical Volapük only

Derived terms

Term list

• bimagad
• brasidagad
• celepagad
• floragad
• flukagad
• gadabam
• gadam
• gadamöb
• gadan
• gadanik

• gadaplan
• gadatail
• gadatuin
• gadav
• gadavaklub
• gadavam
• gadavan
• gadavik
• gadik
• gadil

• gadilik
• gadimeik
• gadöm
• gadön
• higadan
• härbatagad
• jigadan
• kasedagad
• labürenagad

• legad
• legadik
• nimagad
• planavagad
• rosadagad
• sanakebagad
• spatagad
• tedagadan
• vitidagad

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Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaːd/

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.

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Western Apache

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [kàt]

Noun

gad

1. The cedar or juniper tree, especially Juniperus deppeana.

References

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