English

Noun

1. The point of a spear, or an arrowhead.
2. A pointed or wedge-shaped instrument of metal, as a steel wedge used in mining, etc.
3. A sharp-pointed rod; a goad.
4. A spike on a gauntlet; a gadling. Fairholt.
5. A wedge-shaped billet of iron or steel. [Obs.]
6. A rod or stick, as a fishing rod, a measuring rod, or a rod used to drive cattle with.
7. an old English indeterminate measure of metal produced by a furnace, perhaps equivalent to the bloom, perhaps weighing around 100 pounds.

   Quotations

   • 1957: Twice a day a 'gad' of iron, i.e. a bloom weighing 1 cwt. was produced, which took from six to seven hours. — H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 146.