Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) $1.

1809		Amer. Mag. Nov. 1: This land of our dads [...] is a dinger at nailing the scads [DA].
1856		Sacramento City Item in R.H. Thornton Amer. Gloss (1912) 763: So off he went with good three hundred ‘scads.’.
1859		‘A Hit at the Times’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 114: The ‘scads’ are all we want.
1876		‘The Days of ’49’ in Lingenfelter et al. Songs of the Amer. West (1968) 559: He’d deal for you both night and day, / Or as long as he had a scad.
1881		‘Bill Nye’ Bill Nye and Boomerang 91: You could also write religious articles [...] and blow in a good many scads.
1886		Ft Worth Gaz. (TX) 209 Oct. 6/3: The silly cowboy bloweth in his scads against stud-horse poker and remains poor.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 72: There’s twelve hundred dollars a year, an’ nothin’ to do but draw th’ scads.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Duel’ in Strictly Business (1915) 296: They were out for success and scraps and scads.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 296: It’s a chance I’d take myself if I had the scads.
1942		R.G. Lillard Desert Challenge 192: That’s me! Come out with the scads [DA].

2. (also scaddle, scadoodles, scoodle, skadoodles, skads) in pl., large quantities, usu. of money.

1869		‘South-Western Sl.’ in Overland Monthly (CA) Aug. 131: A Texan never has a great quantity of any thing, but he has ‘scads’ of it, or ‘oodles,’ or ‘dead oodles,’ or ‘scadoodles,’ or ‘swads’.
1879		Eve. Chronicle (Virginia City) 10 June in M. Lewis Mining Frontier (1967) 202: We both had scads in them times an’ when the start was made we’d about five thousand on the black between us.
1894		Herald (Los Angeles) 28 Oct. 9/2: A fellah wid a good scar is worth his weight in scads.
1904		W.H. Smith Promoters 52: England [...] found she could raise scads of opium in India, but had no market for it [DA].
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 94: skads, n. A large amount or number, many. ‘There were skads of girls but no boys there’ [...] skadoodles of money, n. Much money.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 366: scads, n. Money; also a large quantity or number.
1911		L. Pound ‘A Second Word-List From Nebraska’ in DN III:vii 546: scadoodles, n. Same as scads. ‘Scadoodles of money.’.
1915		H.E. Rollins ‘A West Texas Word List’ in DN IV:iii 228: scads, n. Large quantities.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 188: There must be scads of ’em that are couple hundred years old or older!
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 261: A lot of fellows you know [...] scads of them will be there.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 94: Why not try where there’s real money, scads of it. A bank, say?
1941		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 13 Sept. 15: Scaddles and scoodles of righteous young hens.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Coffin for a Coward’ in Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 George sank a scad of salad in your new production and he might drop the whole wad if the Hays office decided to blackball you.
1947		J.F. Bardin Last of Philip Banter in Bardin Omnibus (1976) 266: There were scads of queer people milling around.
1958		Kerouac letter 11 Feb. in Charters (1999) II 113: He has scads of brilliant poetry.
1961		F. Kohner Gidget Goes Hawaiian 50: You have to do scads of paddling before you hit the first breakers.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 126: They had scads of papers.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 302: ‘[O]ne has absolutely scads of money’.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 9: There were scads of stern portraits, presumably of [...] the founders.
1994		G. Indiana Rent Boy 54: Scads of ivy growing up the walls.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 17: We talking goo-gobs of money. Scads o’ cash.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘[B]loody scads of it [i.e. medical supplies]: bandages, saline, chloroform, morphine, the whole wack’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 5: I’ve consumed scads of scotch and sucked three packs a day.