spad

plural spads · alternative SpAd · alternative SpAD

1. UKinformalgovernmentA government adviser, often in a political or media role.

   SPAD Special Advisor

   1997 November 28, Reddy Hannah with Wimbush, Angela and Linesberry, Debbie, “Abbreviations and Acronyms”, in Dr. Russell G. Swenson, editor, Defense and Intelligence Abbreviations and Acronyms, Washington, DC: Joint Military Intelligence College, archived from the original on 18 Sep 2017, page 192

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   A successful stint as a spad can be a crucial political apprenticeship - as many of the current crop of professional politicians including the Miliband brothers, David Cameron and George Osborne can testify - so long as they stay in the dark.

   2009, Ben Wright, Hidden world of the political advisers, BBC

   The hit BBC sitcom satirising the inner workings of Whitehall and the so-called spads contains "more than a grain of truth", the head of the cross-party public administration select committee has warned.

   2012, Avoid The Thick of It-style spad appointments, ministers told, The Guardian

plural spads

1. businessA nail one or two inches long, of iron, brass, tin, or tinner iron, with a hole through the flattened head, used to mark stations in underground surveying.

plural spads

1. abbreviationclippingClipping of spadona/spadone.

   RAW OSTRICH FEATHERS / Primes, Wings, White Feminas, Spads, Etc.

   1921 September 7, The New York Times, volume LXX, number 23,237, New York, N.Y., page 24, column 6

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   No. 6.—Spadonas or spads, the first wing-quills of the chick, clipped at about six months.

   1911 September, contributed by Cyphers Incubator Co., “Ostrich Farming in South Africa”, in American Poultry World, volume II, number 11, Buffalo, N.Y.: American Poultry Publishing Co., page 966

   “What d’you mean—‘feathers’,” asked the tanned young public school man who volunteered to trot me round, “spads, second-after-chicks, fancies, natals, black butts, adults, juvenals, byocks, chicks, primes, feminas, or what?”[…]The first white ones we call spads.[…]Two or three months after that clipping we pull out the spad quills.

   1924 February 12, “On Ostrich Feathers”, in The Manchester Guardian, number 24,175, page 6, column 4

   An improvement was noted in the demand for femina wings, spads and long bodies;

   1959, The Standard Bank Review, The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, page 15

1. UKabbreviationinitialismrail transportInitialism of signal passed at danger.

plural SPADs

1. UKrail transportAn instance of a signal passed at danger.

   "We found there had been 60 SPADs in the Paddington throat in the previous eight years, and that was all to do with the layout becoming more complex because of the Heathrow Express.

   2026 March 4, Christian Wolmar, “Railtrack: what really happened”, in RAIL, number 1056, page 53

2. UKalternativeinformalgovernmentAlternative form of spad (“special advisor in government”).
3. plant scienceA relative measurement of the amount of chlorophyll present in a leaf, based on measurements with a SPAD meter produced by Minolta.
4. abbreviationinitialismgovernmentInitialism of self-propelled air defense; a self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle.

present singular third person SPADs · participle present SPADing · participle past SPADed · past SPADed

1. UKrail transportTo pass a signal at danger.

   Signal awareness aids were present at SPADed signals

   2016 December 5, John R. Wilson, Beverley Norris, Ann Mills, People and Rail Systems: Human Factors at the Heart of the Railway, CRC Press, →ISBN

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   SPADing is best seen as a systemic problem requiring a systemic solution

   2005, Andrew Hopkins, Safety, Culture and Risk: The Organisational Causes of Disasters

   SN109 should be known to all drivers driving out of Paddington as a multi SPADed signal

   2006 July 7, Karen Clarke, Gillian Hardstone, Mark Rouncefield, Ian Sommerville, Trust in Technology: A Socio-Technical Perspective, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 138

plural SpAds

1. UKinformalgovernmentAlternative letter-case form of spad (“special adviser”).