padding

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of stuffing, filling, or lining.
2. n. A soft material used to make pads or a pad.
3. n. Something added, especially extraneously or fraudulently: put some padding in the resumé.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of stuffing so as to make a pad.
2. n. The cotton, hair, straw, or other material used in stuffing anything, as a bolster, saddle, or garment; the stuffing used to keep in shape any part of a garment according to the fashion which requires it to be more in relief or drawn tighter than the natural forms allow. ; . The materials used are, especially — a rough felted cloth, a kind of shoddy
3. n. In calico-printing, the process of imbuing the fabric all over with a mordant which is dried. A design is next printed on it in acid discharge (usually lime-juice and bisulphate of potash), the result being that, after the cloth has been dyed in the bath and cleared, white patterns appear upon a ground of uniform color. These white patterns or spaces may be afterward printed upon in steam or pigment colors. Calicoes produced in this way are said to be in the padding or plaquage style.
4. n. Any unnecessary matter inserted in a column, article, book, etc., merely to bring it up to a certain size; vamp; hence, written or printed matter of no real value or utility; whatever has merely the effect of increasing the size of any thing without adding to its interest or value.

Wiktionary

1. v. present participle of pad.
2. n. Soft filling material used in cushions etc.
3. n. computing Extra characters such as spaces added to the end of a record to fill it out to a fixed length.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act or process of making a pad or of inserting stuffing.
2. n. The material with which anything is padded.
3. n. Material of inferior value, serving to extend a book, essay, etc.
4. n. (Calico Printing) The uniform impregnation of cloth with a mordant.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. artifact consisting of soft or resilient material used to fill or give shape or protect or add comfort