chad

plural chads

1. uncountableSmall pieces of paper punched out from the edges of continuous stationery, or from ballot papers, paper tape, punched cards, etc.

   The keypunch wasn't named after a Mr. Chadless; it was so named because, as expected, it punched tape while producing little or no chad.

   2011 June 1, David P. Mikkelson, “Chad: Does the word ‘chad’ come from the Chadless keypunch, invented by a Mr. Chadless?”, in Snopes.com, retrieved 07 Sep 2016

2. countableOne of these pieces of paper.

   The small hinged discs of paper, called ‘chad’, remain attached to the body of the tape.

   1959, J[ohn] W[illiam] Freebody, Telegraphy, London: Isaac Pitman & Sons, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Prior devices of the type according to the present invention have been arranged to cut out the perforations completely at a single movement, thereby producing chads or waste material which often present difficult problems of disposal.

   1939 May 20, Ross A. Lake, Printing Perforating Telegraph Apparatus, US Patent 2255794

   Much of the controversy seems to revolve around ballot cards designed to be perforated by a stylus but which, either through error or deliberate omission, have not been perforated with sufficient precision for a machine to count them. In some cases a piece of the card—a chad—is hanging, say by two corners. In other cases there is no separation at all, just an indentation.

   2000 December 12, Supreme Court of the United States, per curiam, “Bush v. Gore”, in United States Reports, volume 531, page 98 at 105

1. West CountrycontractionobsoleteI had

   Chad et in my meend, and zo chave still. Bet chawnt drow et out bevore tha begen'st agen, and than chell.

   1839, An Exmoor Scolding, London: John Russell Smith, page 11

plural chads

1. Internetalternativeincel slanglifestyleAlternative spelling of Chad (“alpha-male; a virile man”).

1. A male given name from Old English; also a modern nickname for Charles, Chadwick and similar-sounding names.

   "What else? Anyway, here's the genealogy: Charles Junior's only son is Charles the Third - like royalty. He goes by Chip - Cassie's daddy. The mom is Cindy. The dead son was Chad - Charles the Fourth." "All Cs," I said. "Sounds like they like order."

   1993, Jonathan Kellerman, Devil's Waltz, Random House, published 1998, →ISBN, page 26

   2 more examples

   'He used to be called Trevor Buss.' 'Chad? I don't believe you.' […] 'He changed his name into Muhammad Shahabuddin Ali-Shah.' 'No!' 'He'd insist on the whole name. He played football and his mates got fed up saying, "Pass the ball, Muhammad Shahabuddin Ali-Shah" […] No one passed to him. So he became Chad.'

   1995, Hanif Kureishi, The Black Album, Faber and Faber, →ISBN, pages 88, 90

   The scene gave the company’s president, Chad Hartmann, a glimmer of hope amid the chaos that ensued after Tuesday's raid purged roughly half of his staff — many of whom had been longtime employees of the company, which has been processing boxed beef for more than 15 years.

   2025 June 15, Nicole Acevedo, “How a city in Nebraska is recovering after the state's largest worksite immigration raid”, in NBC News

2. UKThe British version of the "Kilroy was here" graffiti.

plural Chads · alternative chad

1. Internetincel slanglifestyleA very handsome, genetically gifted and sexually active man whom women find sexually attractive; at times seen as an alpha male of a group.

   Short for “female humanoid”, it’s used in place of the word “woman” to depict how, in an incel’s view, women are not entirely human, but are instead robot-like androids who only crave sex with Chads.

   2018 April 28, Kate Wilson, “Last week in tech: sex robots”, in The Georgia Straight

   1 more example

   They are united by the fact that women will not have sex with them, usually attributed to shallow obsessions with looks or superficial personality, and by their hatred of “Chads” and “Stacys”, the men and women who have sex.

   2018 April 25, Alex Hern, “Who are the 'incels' and how do they relate to Toronto van attack?”, in The Guardian

alternative dated Tchad

1. A country in Central Africa. Official name: Republic of Chad.

   Though foreigners did play some part in fighting as mercenaries for Gadhafi during the bloody Libyan war, the IOM and local leaders in Chad say the vast majority of Chadians, like Mohammed, were working to send remittances home.

   2012 April 18, David McKenzie, “Chad’s migrant workers pay price for Libya conflict”, in CNN

2. Lake Chad (a freshwater lake at the junction of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon in Central Africa).