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spad

noun, verb — 7 senses

SPAD

nounalso spelled SPAD

UK /ˈspæd/

1

Rail transport, Railways, Transport UK An 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

Government, Politics UK, Alternative, Informal Alternative form of spad (“special advisor in government”).

3

A relative measurement of the amount of chlorophyll present in a leaf, based on measurements with a SPAD meter produced by Minolta.

4

Government, Military, Politics, War Abbreviation, Initialism Initialism of self-propelled air defense; a self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle.

SPAD

verb
1

Rail transport, Railways, Transport UK To pass a signal at danger.

  • SPADing is best seen as a systemic problem requiring a systemic solution2005, 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 signal2006 July 7, Karen Clarke, Gillian Hardstone, Mark Rouncefield, Ian Sommerville, Trust in Technology: A Socio-Technical Perspective, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 138:
1 more example
  • Signal awareness aids were present at SPADed signals2016 December 5, John R. Wilson, Beverley Norris, Ann Mills, People and Rail Systems: Human Factors at the Heart of the Railway, CRC Press, →ISBN:
Related terms
danger signal

spad

noun

Etymology Shortening of special adviser.

1

Government, Politics UK, Informal A government adviser, often in a political or media role.

  • SPAD Special Advisor1997 November 23, 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:
  • 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:
1 more example
  • 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

spad

noun
1

Business, Mining A 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.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for SPAD and spad.