Word.ws English Dictionary

call a spade a shovel

call a spade a shovel verb: to put it more than bluntly; to express a truth forcefully; to use exaggerated language to make a statement of fact.

Verb

call a spade a shovel (third-person singular simple present calls a spade a shovel, present participle calling a spade a shovel, simple past and past participle called a spade a shovel)

  1. To put it more than bluntly; to express a truth forcefully; to use exaggerated language to make a statement of fact.

Forms of call a spade a shovel

third-person singular presentcalls a spade a shovel
present participlecalling a spade a shovel
past participlecalled a spade a shovel
pastcalled a spade a shovel

Origin of call a spade a shovel

From call a spade a spade.

Questions about call a spade a shovel

What does call a spade a shovel mean?
Call a spade a shovel means to put it more than bluntly; to express a truth forcefully; to use exaggerated language to make a statement of fact.
What part of speech is call a spade a shovel?
Call a spade a shovel is a verb.
What is the past tense of call a spade a shovel?
The past tense of call a spade a shovel is called a spade a shovel.

Words near call a spade a shovel in the dictionary

  1. call a cab
  2. call a go
  3. call a halt
  4. call a lid
  5. call a shovel a shovel
  6. call a spade a shovel
  7. call a spade a spade
  8. call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel
  9. call a spade a spade, not a big spoon
  10. call ahead
  11. call an ambulance

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: call a spade a shovel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “call a spade a shovel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/call_a_spade_a_shovel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.