zad Obs. exc. dial.
Variant of zed, name of the letter Z; hence (slang) applied to a thing or person of crooked form. (Cf. zard.)
| 1669 Holder Elem. Speech 140 We may imagine it to have been anciently pronounced, as it is now by the Italians, Ds or Ts; and so to be called Zad from the Hebrew Tsadi: but yet..we..do as often call it Yzard. 1725 New Cant. Dict. s.v., A meer Zad, used of any bandy-legg'd, crouch-back'd ..Person. 1728 De Foe Street Robb. Consid. 35 Zad, crooked. 1778 N. B. Halhed Gram. Bengal Lang. 6 W is defined from its form only, not from its use; and Z zad, or izard is an appellation equally useless. 1810 Crabbe Borough xviii. 30 And how she soothed me, when, with study sad, I labour'd on to reach the final Zad. 1877 Reports Provinc. (E.D.D.) Labouring man said at a night school, ‘I can't made a zad.’ |