Definitions

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

  • noun A small amount or degree; a bit.
  • noun A small boy.
  • idiom (a tad) To a small degree; somewhat.

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

  • noun A small amount; a little bit.

Etymologies

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

[Perhaps short for tadpole.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1877, ‘young or small child’, probably a shortened form of tadpole. The extended meaning ‘small amount’ is first recorded 1915.

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Examples

  • The other thing that kicks this one up a tad is the major eye candy babe-age with both Musetta Vander as Shan'auc and Vanessa Angel as Anise (and who, exactly, designs a top that leaves the belly button bare?)

    Stargate SG-1 Watchathon - 'Crossroads' (S04E04) 2009

  • The more usual use of tad is the sense 'a small amount or degree; a bit ', often used in the adverbial phrase a tad 'a little; slightly'.

    A tad irritating 2008

  • The more usual use of tad is the sense 'a small amount or degree; a bit ', often used in the adverbial phrase a tad 'a little; slightly'.

    Archive 2008-11-01 2008

  • I hope they do Suicide Squeeze, altho they'd hafta tone down the title a tad, considering the economy and all.

    Here comes 2010 ... Victor Gischler 2009

  • A deity'dev' was also named and installed here and thus the name tad-dev.

    Archive 2006-09-01 Abodh 2006

  • I am not sure tad is allowed to modify risque - or even be in the same sentence - especially when the subject is tango:

    Tango . . . 2004

  • A deity'dev' was also named and installed here and thus the name tad-dev.

    Mumbai Names 3 Abodh 2006

  • Tamer by a tad was the $146,000 Audi R8 -- out of all the cars in the group, this is the one I'd actually buy, a still-super-cool-but-practical daily driver.

    Supercar Driving Tours 2010

  • Tamer by a tad was the $146,000 Audi R8 -- out of all the cars in the group, this is the one I'd actually buy, a still-super-cool-but-practical daily driver.

    Supercar Driving Tours 2010

  • Tamer by a tad was the $146,000 Audi R8 -- out of all the cars in the group, this is the one I'd actually buy, a still-super-cool-but-practical daily driver.

    Supercar Driving Tours 2010

Comments

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  • My mother told me long ago

    (When I was a little tad)

    That when the night went wailing so,

    Somebody had been bad;

    And then, when I was snug in bed,

    Whither I had been sent,

    With the blankets pulled up round my head,

    I'd think of what mother'd said,

    And wonder what boy she meant!

    - Eugene Field, 'The Night Wind'.

    November 3, 2008

  • I like tad in the "small amount" sense.

    May 6, 2009

  • "Recently, I wrote about my goal of learning everything. This is more than a tad ambitious, and probably impossible."

    Source: The Goal of Learning Everything

    January 22, 2018