Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Scraps or bits of paper, such as the perforated edges of paper for tractor feed printers or the tiny rectangles punched out from data cards.
  • noun One of these scraps or bits of paper.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dry twig: same as chat.
  • noun Dry, bushy fragments found among food. [Prov. Eng. in both senses, usually in plural.]
  • noun An obsolete form of shad. The name in Cornwall, England, of the young of the common sea-bream, Pagellus centrodontus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete See shad.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable Small pieces of paper punched out from the edges of continuous stationery, punched cards, paper tape etc.
  • noun countable One of these pieces of paper.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a lake in north central Africa; fed by the Shari river
  • noun a family of Afroasiatic tonal languages (mostly two tones) spoken in the regions west and south of Lake Chad in north central Africa
  • noun a small piece of paper that is supposed to be removed when a hole is punched in a card or paper tape
  • noun a landlocked desert republic in north-central Africa; was under French control until 1960

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Uncertain; predates the Chadless punch (see the Snopes article on this supposed origin); possibly from Scots chad, "river gravel", or the English slang term chat, "louse".

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Examples

Comments

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  • This word still makes me wince a little.

    June 14, 2008

  • Same.

    June 14, 2008

  • I take it the civil war there is still going?

    June 14, 2008

  • The wounds were recently ripped open with Recount

    June 14, 2008

  • Civil war? Sort of. Lots of indignant partisanship, certainly.

    Where are you from, Asat?

    June 14, 2008

  • Oh, here and there. Chad has made me think of the country since Grade 7. Just trying to stir things up (and keep them in perspective, perhaps).

    I did see most of Recount recently, though. Certainly brought back memories, of a kind.

    June 14, 2008

  • When was the last time the country Chad was in the news?

    June 16, 2008

  • I see Chad in the news pretty regularly, and unfortunately it's never good news. They have all those refugees to deal with, and there was that Zoe's Ark problem last year... I really hope that life in Chad is better than the American media depicts.

    June 16, 2008

  • It pops up once or twice a month, and its never good news unfortunately :(

    June 16, 2008

  • Chad sounds like a man who lives next door. He wears overalls for fun and speaks with a slight whistle. He was born with a spotted dog following him. His weekly religious observance is to mow the lawn at 9.30am on Sunday.

    June 16, 2008

  • Yep. That's him. But wait -- how can he live next door to you, too? Or are we neighors?

    June 16, 2008

  • We're all neighbours in the big Wordie family, Asa *glowing*

    June 16, 2008

  • I thought Chad had thick brown hair, parted too far to one side so it always is falling over one eye. His parents spend too much time at the country club to realize that he is flunking out of his prep-school and selling pot to the neighbors out of his sports car. He always has the collar of his polo shirt turned up at the back and would kick a spotted dog if it followed him around...

    Maybe country Chad has an evil twin...Suburbs Chad.

    June 16, 2008

  • Ah. That's Chad's son, Chad W. Bushel-Harvester.

    June 16, 2008

  • Ahhhh. What's the "W." stand for?

    June 17, 2008

  • The W's just a hatstand, really.

    June 17, 2008

  • Just for the record, I do know a Chad who's a perfectly nice guy. But I notice everyone seems to use his last name when referring to him. Maybe it's to avoid confusion -- you know, with Chad

    June 17, 2008

  • bilby, does Chad participate to your bi-annual meeting with reesetee's father*?

    (* Cf. bootlegger)

    December 4, 2009

  • He'd better not. I want no part of Chad.

    December 5, 2009

  • He's bad news, that Chad.

    December 5, 2009

  • Besides, my dad doesn't like Chad. Thinks he's a cad.

    December 5, 2009