pad
/pæd/ noun, verb, interjection
Forms pads padding padded padde
- noun A flattened mass of anything soft, to sit or lie on.
- noun A cushion used as a saddle without a tree or frame.
- noun A soft, or small, cushion.
- noun A cushion-like thickening of the skin on the underside of the toes of animals.
- noun The mostly hairless flesh located on the bottom of an animal's foot or paw.
- noun Any cushion-like part of the human body, especially the ends of the fingers.
- noun A stuffed guard or protection, especially one worn on the legs of horses to prevent bruising.
- noun A soft bag or cushion to relieve pressure, support a part, etc.
- verb (transitive) To stuff.
- verb (transitive) To furnish with a pad or padding.
- verb (transitive) To increase the size of, especially by adding undesirable filler. “The author began to pad her succinct stories with trite descriptions to keep up with current market trends.”
- verb (transitive) To imbue uniformly with a mordant. “to pad cloth”
- verb (transitive, cricket) To deliberately play the ball with the leg pad instead of the bat.
- verb To walk with soft steps. “pad down the corridor”
- noun (UK, dialectal) A toad.
- noun (UK dialectal, Australia, Ireland) A path, particularly one unformed or unmaintained; a track made by animals.
- noun An easy-paced horse; a padnag.
- noun (UK, obsolete) A robber who infests the road on foot; a highwayman or footpad.
- noun (UK, obsolete) A tramp or itinerant musician.
- noun (UK, dialectal) A type of wickerwork basket, especially as used as a measure of fish or other goods.
Synonyms
palp pulp synth pad pad of paper tablet inkpad inking pad stamp pad launching pad launchpad launch pad launch area diggings digs domiciliation lodgings embroider lard embellish aggrandize aggrandise blow up dramatize dramatise slog footslog plod trudge tramp fill out
Etymology
1554, "bundle of straw to lie on". Unknown, and unclear all senses have common etymology. For sense "ends of a digit", cf. Low German or West Flemish pad (“sole of the foot”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to pass”), which would make it related to both path and find.
From Middle English pade, padde, from Old English padde, from Proto-West Germanic *paddā, from Proto-Germanic *paddǭ (“toad”). Cognate with Dutch pad, German Low German Pad (“toad”), dialectal German Padde, Danish padde, Swedish padda, Icelandic padda (“toad”), and possibly to English paddle. Doublet of pode
From Dutch pad or Middle Low German pat (“path”). Doublet of path.
Perhaps an alteration of ped.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A footpath; a road. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
- noun An easy-paced horse; a padnag. Addison An abbot on an ambling pad. Tennyson.
- verb To travel upon foot; to tread. [Obs.]
- verb To travel heavily or slowly. Bunyan.
Etymology [D. pad. sq. root21. See Path.]
Etymology [Perh. akin to pod.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pad”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details