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Pronunciation varies by accent · noun
(UK politics, informal) A government adviser, often in a political or media role..
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.
SPAD Special Advisor
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.
No. 6.—Spadonas or spads, the first wing-quills of the chick, clipped at about six months.
RAW OSTRICH FEATHERS / Primes, Wings, White Feminas, Spads, Etc.
“What d’you mean—‘feathers’,” asked the tanned young public school man who volunteered to trot me round, “spads, second-after-chicks, fancies, natals, black butts, adults, juvenals, byocks, chicks, primes, feminas, or what?”[…]The first white ones we call spads.[…]Two or three months after that clipping we pull out the spad quills.
An improvement was noted in the demand for femina wings, spads and long bodies;
Use spad when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Spad means (UK politics, informal) A government adviser, often in a political or media role..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
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.
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