In spades

In spades is a phrase used as an intensifier and means to the utmost degree or excessively so, as in to have something or other in spades or to deliver in spades etc. The expression derives from playing cards where, in some card games, spades are very often the highest-valued suit, as they are in Contract Bridge for example. The expression is American from the early 20th century and its first appearance in print is attributed to Damon Runyan in the October 1929 edition of Hearst’s International, “I always hear the same thing about every bum on Broadway, male and female, including some I know are bums, in spades.”