Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To go about on foot.
  • intransitive verb To move or walk about almost inaudibly.
  • intransitive verb To go along (a route) on foot.
  • noun A muffled sound resembling that of soft footsteps.
  • noun A horse with a plodding gait.
  • noun A thin, cushionlike mass of soft material used to fill, to give shape, or to protect against jarring, scraping, or other injury.
  • noun Sports A piece of equipment consisting of shaped cushioning material often attached to a hard outer surface and worn to protect against blows, collisions, or shots.
  • noun A flexible saddle without a frame.
  • noun An ink-soaked cushion used to ink a rubber stamp.
  • noun A number of sheets of paper of the same size stacked one on top of the other and glued together at one end; a tablet.
  • noun The broad floating leaf of an aquatic plant such as a water lily.
  • noun The flattened fleshy stem of a cactus such as a prickly pear.
  • noun The fleshy underside of the end of a finger or toe.
  • noun The cushionlike flesh on the underpart of the toes and feet of many animals.
  • noun The foot of such an animal.
  • noun A launch pad.
  • noun A helipad.
  • noun A keypad.
  • noun A touchpad.
  • noun Slang One's living quarters, especially an apartment.
  • transitive verb To line or stuff with soft material.
  • transitive verb To lengthen or increase, especially with extraneous or false information.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To travel on foot; tramp slowly or wearily along; trudge or jog along.
  • To travel on foot over or along; proceed on foot through; journey slowly, steadily, or wearily along.
  • To tread or beat down; make smooth and level by treading: as, to pad a path.
  • To move with the soft thud of a bare foot striking the ground.
  • noun A pannier; a basket.
  • noun A toad; a frog.
  • noun A road-horse; a horse for riding on the road, as distinguished from a hunter or a work-horse, etc.; a roadster.
  • In leather-making, to apply a heavy coating of solution to.
  • In India, to pack on an elephant's pad.
  • noun A path; a footpath; a road.
  • noun A robber; a footpad.
  • noun [pad, verb] A dull sound, as of footsteps.
  • noun A soft cushion, or something of the nature of a cushion, or a stuffed part, as of a garment, a saddle, etc., used to fill up a hollow, to relieve pressure, or as a protection.
  • noun Specifically— In cricket, a wadded guard worn to protect the leg by a batsman or wicket-keeper.
  • noun In embroidery, a small qnantity of fibrous material, such as raw cotton or silk, used for raising parts of a pattern, the stitch covering it closely.
  • noun One of the large, fleshy, thick-skinned protuberances of the sole of the foot of various quadrupeds, as the dog or fox; hence, specifically, the foot of a fox.
  • noun One of the tylari of a bird's foot; one of the cushion-like enlargements on the under side of a bird's toes. Compare heel-pad and pterna.
  • noun In anatomy, the splenium of the corpus callosum. See splenium.
  • noun In entomology, a projecting part of the body covered only with a membrane or semi-chitinous sheath: generally used in composition: as, the wing-pads of a pupa; the foot-pads or cushions on the tarsi.
  • noun A cushion used as a saddle; a saddle of leather and padding, without any tree, such as are used by country market-women or by equestrian performers in a circus.
  • noun A number of sheets of writing-, drawing-, or blotting-paper held together by glue at one or more edges, forming a tablet from which the sheets can be removed singly as used: as, a writing-pad; a blotting-pad.
  • noun A bundle; bale; pack: as, a pad of wool; a pad of yarn. Among fish-dealers a pad of mackerel is 60 (sometimes 120) fish.
  • noun The handle of some tools: as, the pad of a keyhole-saw.

Etymologies

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

[Perhaps from Middle Dutch paden, tread a path, from pad, pat, path; see pent- in Indo-European roots.]

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

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Dutch pad or Middle Low German pat ("path").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Precise etymology unknown; probably existed (though unattested) in Old English. Possibly cognate with Dutch pad, dialectal German Padde, Swedish padda, Danish padde, and possibly ancestor to the pad-like English paddle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably partly from Middle Low German, partly imitative.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Perhaps an alteration of ped.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably imitative, perhaps related to or influenced by Etymology 5, above.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1554, "bundle of straw to lie on", possibly, from Middle Low German or Dutch pad ("sole of the foot").

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Examples

  • Out of doors something made a circuit of the cabin, like a beast of the night, stealthy footsteps muffled by the snow: _pad -- pad -- pad_ ....

    The Bronze Bell Louis Joseph Vance 1906

  • For a short period during which you might have counted six, there was nothing heard but the rustle of the men's movements and the _pad, pad, pad_ of their bare feet upon the deck.

    Fitz the Filibuster George Manville Fenn 1870

  • Thai dish -- pad is Thai for stir-fry -- consists of rice noodles, tofu, shrimp, crushed peanuts, fish sauce, bean sprouts, eggs, garlic and chiles.

    WN.com - Articles related to Las Vegas Farmer's Market 2010

  • The vehicle when it leaves the pad is an integrated spacecraft.

    Abbey Lane: They're Back - NASA Watch 2009

  • Which means that it will get even heavier (when getting it off the pad is a grey area even now).

    Orion Slims Down - NASA Watch 2009

  • When I complained, he informed me first that he really didn't work on shotguns (he was a rifle guy), and then that "scratches like those little ones" were "normal" when a pad is added.

    A Good Gun Salesman is Hard To Find 2009

  • When I complained, he informed me first that he really didn't work on shotguns (he was a rifle guy), and then that "scratches like those little ones" were "normal" when a pad is added.

    A Good Gun Salesman is Hard To Find 2009

  • Do not cut all the way through to the narrow end (the thicker part where the pad is attached to the main plant) but leave approximately 1 1/2 uncut.

    Stuffed Nopales: Huaraches 2006

  • Do not cut all the way through to the narrow end (the thicker part where the pad is attached to the main plant) but leave approximately 1 1/2 uncut.

    Stuffed Nopales: Huaraches 2006

  • Do not cut all the way through to the narrow end (the thicker part where the pad is attached to the main plant) but leave approximately 1 1/2 uncut.

    Stuffed Nopales: Huaraches 2006

Comments

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  • Cricket jargon - a protective guard worn on the leg. Batsmen in modern times also use thigh-pads and chest-pads as protection.

    November 30, 2007

  • "21. In calico-printing, to impregnate (the cotton cloth to be printed) with a mordant. It is done in a machine called a padding-machine (which see)."

    --Century Dictionary

    September 16, 2010

  • "pad" in Hungarian means: bench / desk

    August 1, 2012