gad

n. [ OE. gad, Icel. gaddr goad, sting; akin to Sw. gadd sting, Goth. gazds, G. gerte switch. See Yard a measure. ] 1. The point of a spear, or an arrowhead. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A pointed or wedge-shaped instrument of metal, as a steel wedge used in mining, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

I will go get a leaf of brass,
And with a gad of steel will write these words. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A sharp-pointed rod; a goad. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A spike on a gauntlet; a gadling. Fairholt. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A wedge-shaped billet of iron or steel. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Flemish steel . . . some in bars and some in gads. Moxon. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A rod or stick, as a fishing rod, a measuring rod, or a rod used to drive cattle with. [ Prov. Eng. Local, U.S. ] Halliwell. Bartlett. [ 1913 Webster ]

Upon the gad, upon the spur of the moment; hastily. [ Obs. ] “All this done upon the gad!” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A gadder [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The gadfly. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who roves about idly, a rambling gossip. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. & n. Going about much, needlessly or without purpose. [ 1913 Webster ]

Envy is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

The good nuns would check her gadding tongue. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gadding car, in quarrying, a car which carries a drilling machine so arranged as to drill a line of holes. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a roving, idle manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Disposed to gad. -- Gad"dish*nes, n. “Gaddishness and folly.” Abp. Leighton. [1913 Webster]

n. [ Cf. Cod the fish. ] (Zool.) (a) A small British fish (Motella argenteola) of the Cod family. (b) A pike, so called at Moray Firth; -- called also gead. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]