vbl. sb.1 [f. SPADE v.1] The action of digging, working, striking, etc., with a spade; the quantity of earth that may be lifted with a spade; a spade’s depth of earth.
1647. Hexham, I. A spading, een spittinge ofte delvinge.
1793. Fullarton, View Agric. Ayr (1891), 111. To half trench an acre, with one spading and a shoveling.
1796. W. H. Marshall, Rur. Econ. West Eng., I. 143. The price for ‘spading’ is about three halfpence, a square perch.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Aug., 279. To allow of the removal of perhaps a spading of earth all along.
1842. J. Aiton, Domest. Econ. (1857), 161. The first spading being rich soil taken from the trench, should be buried in the centre of the dike.
1888. Daily News, 21 Nov., 5/7. Had the League anything to do with the spading and shooting of Colletty?
1891. W. J. Malden, Tillage, 82. Another method of planting potatoes which is carried out very successfully is known as spading in.
attrib. 1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 702/2. A spading-machine for loosening and turning the soil.
Spading vbl. sb.2: see under SPADE v.2
