gad

noun8

1. •
   (dialect, US) A goad, a sharp-pointed rod for driving cattle, horses, etc, or one with a whip or thong on the end for the same purpose.

   • Ist yoakes and bowes and gad and yoaksticks there? — 1684
2. •
   (dialect, US) A rod or stick, such as a fishing rod or a measuring rod.

   • And we'll prepare our limber gads, Lang lines, and braw brass wheels — 1836
3. •
   One who roams about idly; a gadabout.
4. •
   A pointed metal tool for breaking or chiselling rock; a pick.

   • I will go get a leaf of brass, / And with a gad of steel will write these words. — 1588
5. •
   (Scotland, offensive) A greedy and/or stupid person.

   • Ye greedy ged, ye have taken the very breath out o' me. — 1913
6. •
   A spike on a gauntlet; a gadling.

   • Sometimes we see the knuckles ornamented with gads or gadlings. — 1840
7. •
   (old-fashioned) An indeterminate measure of metal produced by a furnace, sometimes equivalent to a bloom weighing around 100 pounds.

   • Twice a day a 'gad' of iron, i.e., a bloom weighing 1 cwt. was produced, which took from six to seven hours. — 1957
8. •
   (no longer used) A metal bar.

verb2

1. •
   To move from one location to another in an apparently random and frivolous manner.

   • So when he saw King Arthur he said: "Thou knave! Wherefore didst thou quit thy work to go a-gadding?" — 1903
2. •
   To run with the tail in the air, bent over the back, usually in an attempt to escape the warble fly.

exclamation1

1. •
   An exclamation roughly equivalent to by God, goodness gracious, for goodness' sake.

   • The clasp slips free (gad, what lush kazooms) and she even helps him pull off the blouse that is now cuffing her at the elbows. — 1987

noun1

1. •
   Acronym of generalized anxiety disorder.