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cad

noun
\ ˈkad How to pronounce cad (audio) \

Definition of cad

 (Entry 1 of 2)

1 : a bus conductor
2 : a man who acts with deliberate disregard for another's feelings or rights a selfish cad

CAD

abbreviation

Definition of CAD (Entry 2 of 2)

1 computer-aided design
2 coronary artery disease
Synonyms The Origins of Cad More Example Sentences Learn More about cad

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Synonyms for cad

Synonyms: Noun

bastard, beast, bleeder [British], blighter [chiefly British], boor, bounder, bugger, buzzard, chuff, churl, clown, creep, cretin, crud [slang], crumb [slang], cur, dirtbag [slang], dog, fink, heel, hound, jerk, joker, louse, lout, pill, rat, rat fink, reptile, rotter, schmuck [slang], scum, scumbag [slang], scuzzball [slang], skunk, sleaze, sleazebag [slang], sleazeball [slang], slime, slimeball [slang], slob, snake, so-and-so, sod [chiefly British], stinkard, stinker, swine, toad, varmint, vermin

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The Origins of Cad

You might wonder how the word cad came to refer to both a bus conductor and a disagreeable man. Were the bus drivers of yore thought to be particularly unsavory characters? Not necessarily, and there is a reasonable explanation for how we arrived at the most common meaning of this word today (that is, the one for a badly-behaved man).

In 18th-century Scotland, caddie had the meaning “one that waits about for odd jobs.” Shortened to cad, this word took on the additional senses “an unbooked coach passenger” (one who, presumably, waited about for a ride) and “an unskilled assistant or laborer.” The “unbooked passenger” meaning seems to have led to the “omnibus conductor” one. The “odd job-seeker” or “unskilled laborer” sense, for its part, developed into the “disagreeable man” sense at Oxford University, where students applied cad in a dismissive fashion to job-seeking townsmen whom they considered vulgar.

Examples of cad in a Sentence

Noun

 He is a cad, not a gentleman. he's the type of cad who readily bad-mouths every girl who's ever dumped him

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

 Reid Scott has made something of an art out of portraying charming cads. — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, "Late Night actor Reid Scott reflects on playing the 'privileged white prick'," 14 June 2019 But the Franklin that emerges here is often bullheaded and foolish—even a cad. — Sam Kean, WSJ, "‘Young Benjamin Franklin’ Review: Poor Richard Sows His Oats," 17 Sep. 2018 Many of the aristocratic cads these actresses took up with sound like certain notorious Hollywood executives. — Rachel Shteir, WSJ, "‘Playing to the Gods’ Review: Avatars of Female Anguish," 23 Aug. 2018 Right now, there’s no clear details about whether there will be any changes to the company’s product lineup, which included a wide array of memory cads, card readers, SSDs, and USB flash drives. — Shoshana Wodinsky, The Verge, "Lexar’s making a glorious return to the world of flash storage," 17 Aug. 2018 Concomitantly, Trevor Howard’s Wagner, in this full-length cut, is not the usual cartoon cad. — Joseph Horowitz, WSJ, "A Momentous Wagnerian Film," 15 June 2018 Connecticut Sunrise The sun raises a brush over a wash of Payne's gray, swabs the oak cad orange, drips leaves on drop cloth grass. — Hartford Courant, courant.com, "The Poems Of Aaron Caycedo-Kimura: Honoring Ones Parents," 13 June 2018 Is there any singer in the world better at playing the heartbroken cad than blackbear? — Kat Bein, Billboard, "DVBBS & blackbear Got Beats You Can't Get Over With 'IDWK': Listen," 1 June 2018 Roxy’s mother and stepfather fly to Paris to plead with Roxy to divorce the cad and return to Santa Barbara. — WSJ, "Five Best: Jenny Allen," 13 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cad.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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First Known Use of cad

Noun

1833, in the meaning defined at sense 1

History and Etymology for cad

Noun

English dialect, unskilled assistant, short for Scots caddie

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More Definitions for cad

cad

noun
How to pronounce CAD (audio)

English Language Learners Definition of cad

old-fashioned : a rude and selfish man

See the full definition for cad in the English Language Learners Dictionary

CAD

abbreviation

Medical Definition of CAD

coronary artery disease

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