Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A fenced area, usually near a stable, used chiefly for grazing horses.
  • noun An enclosure at a racetrack where the horses are assembled, saddled, and paraded before each race.
  • noun An area of an automobile racetrack where cars are prepared before a race.
  • noun Australian A piece of fenced-in land.
  • transitive verb To confine in a paddock.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Applied depreciatively to a person: in the play of “Macbeth,” an evil spirit or a familar.
  • noun A piece of land of any size, inclosed or not, used for cultivation.
  • noun In mining: A store-yard near a mine-shaft for ore or wash-dirt.
  • noun An open excavation in a superficial deposit.
  • To confine or inclose in or as in a paddock.
  • noun A toad or frog.
  • noun The tadpole-fish.
  • noun A small field or inclosure; especially, a small inclosure under pasture immediately adjoining a stable; a small turfed inclosure in which animals, especially horses, are kept.
  • To make into a paddock, as a run for sheep.
  • In mining, to place or store (ore) in a paddock; dig or form a paddock in.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A toad or frog.
  • noun (Bot.) a hollow-stemmed plant of the genus Equisetum, especially Equisetum limosum and the fruiting stems of Equisetum arvense; -- called also padow pipe and toad pipe. See Equisetum.
  • noun See Toadstone.
  • noun (Bot.) a toadstool.
  • noun obsolete A small inclosure or park for sporting.
  • noun A small inclosure for pasture; esp., one adjoining a stable.
  • noun An enclosure used for saddling and mounting horses prior to a race.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A frog or toad.
  • noun A small enclosure or field of grassland, especially for horses.
  • noun An area where horses are paraded and mounted before a race and unsaddled after a race.
  • noun Land, fenced or otherwise delimited, which is most often part of a sheep or cattle property.
  • noun motor racing An area at circuit where the racing vehicles are parked and worked on before and between races.
  • verb To provide with a paddock. To keep in, or place in, a paddock.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun pen where racehorses are saddled and paraded before a race

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of Middle English parrok, from Old English pearroc.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English paddok, equivalent to pad (“frog or toad”) +‎ -ock.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Alteration of Middle English parrok, parrock ("enclosure, fence, paddock"), from Old English pearroc, pearruc ("enclosure, fence"), from Proto-Germanic *parrukaz (“enclosure, fence”), from Proto-Germanic *parr- (“stake, bar, beam, fence-post”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)par- (“beam, log”) + Proto-Germanic *-ukaz, *-ikaz (See -ock). Cognate with Dutch perk ("flowerbed, garden, pen"), German Pferch ("sheepfold, sheep-pen"), Danish park ("pond"). Related to park, spar.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word paddock.

Examples

  • The paddock is set amid elms, maples, and vendors of sugary confections.

    Off to the Races 2007

  • The paddock is set amid elms, maples, and vendors of sugary confections.

    Off to the Races 2007

  • The tree in the paddock is so loaded down with Bramleys, the branches are bending halfway to the ground.

    Apple tart | Diane Duane's weblog: "Out of Ambit" 2006

  • Perhaps the first land fenced was too small to be called a field; the word paddock was extended in reference as more land was fenced and field is seldom heard as a topographical term in Australia.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XI No 4 1984

  • In Old English, a related word is pearroc, which refers to an enclosure holding farm animals, just as its descendant word paddock does today.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • In Old English, a related word is pearroc, which refers to an enclosure holding farm animals, just as its descendant word paddock does today.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • In the center of the paddock is a marker of some sort, usually slightly elevated.

    Archive 2006-08-01 2006

  • In the center of the paddock is a marker of some sort, usually slightly elevated.

    Guest Post: Jacob Sewall on Fast Pigeons 2006

  • Towards the north end of the paddock was a narrow gully with great sandstone walls all round, and where it narrowed the first discoverers had built a stockyard, partly with dry stone walls and partly with logs and rails.

    Robbery Under Arms 2004

  • A paddock is the best night accommodation for a donkey.

    2.1 Introduction to Donkeys Relationship with Humans 1995

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.