Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Spade-footed; scaphiopod.
  • noun A spade-footed or scaphiopod toad; a spade-toad.
  • noun An enlargement of the thin end of a leg of a chair or other piece of furniture having a contour similar to that of a spade. Also used adjectively.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any species of burrowing toads of the genus Scaphiopus, esp. Scaphiopus Holbrookii, of the Eastern United States; -- called also spade toad.

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

  • noun Any of several burrowing toads, of the genus Caphiopus, with a spadelike appendage on the hind legs.

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

  • noun a burrowing toad of the northern hemisphere with a horny spade-like projection on each hind foot

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

spade +‎ foot

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Examples

  • Mr. GASCON: There are a couple of other species of frogs that are in a particular group of animals that had been perhaps the most threatened by all of these different impacts that we've had on the environment: the spadefoot toads.

    Scientists Search For Endangered Amphibians 2010

  • She is currently working on an undergraduate research project where she is using mate choice tests to determine call rate preferences in female spadefoot toads.

    Contributor: Haley Davis 2010

  • It is the spadefoot toad Scaphiopus couchi, and it is sleeping away the eleven-month drought that dominates every year.

    Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer 2009

  • There are 18 species of fish, 6 being endangered in Bulgaria including the rare asp Aspius aspius, 15 species of reptiles including the Aesculapian snake Elaphe longissimus, and 12 amphibians; one, the eastern spadefoot Pelobates syriacus, recently discovered in Bulgaria for the first time, is listed in the Red Book for Bulgaria.

    Srebarna Nature Reserve, Bulgaria 2009

  • There are, in fact, hardly any parasites that have gotten a foothold inside the spadefoot, and most of them can only mount feeble infections.

    Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer 2009

  • But one parasite positively revels in the spadefoot life, a worm named Pseudodiplorchis americanus.

    Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer 2009

  • Plains spadefoot toad Scaphiopus bombifrons also occurs (Alberta Provincial Parks Service, 1989).

    Dinosaur Provincial Park, Canada 2009

  • Yet, half of spadefoot toads carry the monogenean Pseudodiplorchis, and each toad carries an average of five.

    Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer 2009

  • The Sonoran Desert toad, desert spadefoot, northern casque-headed treefrog and others survive in the desert because of their abilities to excavate burrows as much as three feet deep where they spend nine or ten months at a time.

    Adaptations of desert amphibians and reptiles 2009

  • The influence of parasite infection on mating success in spadefoot toads, Scaphiopus couchi.

    Parasite Rex Carl Zimmer 2009

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