The phrase “in spades” means abundance and originates from the game of bridge. It is an idiom used to refer to anything positive or negative, and can replace phrases like “a lot of” or “many”.
The phrase “in spades” basically means a lot or in abundance. It can be used in many different ways, indicating both positive and negative abundance, and the phrase is thought to derive from the game of bridge. An apt way to use the phrase would be: “I’ve got loads of problems right now. It’s not a good time.” It is an idiom and is believed to have origins in 20th century America.
Idioms are phrases that cannot be understood by their literal meaning or by the meaning of their constituent parts. Popular idioms include phrases like “killing two birds with one stone,” which means achieving two goals with one action. Phrases like this are used very often in speech and can be confusing to anyone unfamiliar with the phrase, especially people for whom English is not their first language.
In the game of bridge, spade is the highest rank among the four possible suits. The suits in a standard Anglican deck of cards are diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs. In the game of bridge, diamonds and clubs are the lowest ranked suits. The phrase “in spades” was probably spoken many times in bridge games before acquiring its idiomatic meaning.
A common misconception is that the phrase “in spades” is short for “in spades,” which would essentially give the phrase the same meaning. A spade is a common tool used for digging and the phrase “shovelfuls” would conjure up images of pile upon pile of the thing in question. While spades have been around longer than the game of bridge, it is generally accepted that this is not the origin of the phrase.
The idiom can be used to refer to anything, tangible or not. Someone can be said to have the intelligence “give spades” or to have marbles “give spades”. Similarly, the phrase can also be applied to negative things, such as problems, allergies or cancers. The phrase may be used in sentences in place of “alot of”, “many” or other equivalent phrases, but will often require a rearrangement of the sentence structure. For example, someone might say “I have a lot of tennis balls” but this should be changed to “I have tennis balls in spades” to include the idiom.
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