pad
pronunciation
How to pronounce pad in British English:
UK [pæd]
How to pronounce pad in American English:
US [pæd]
-
- Noun:
- a number of sheets of paper fastened together along one edge
- the large floating leaf of an aquatic plant (as the water lily)
- a block of absorbent material saturated with ink; used to transfer ink evenly to a rubber stamp
- a usually thin flat mass of padding
- a platform from which rockets or space craft are launched
- temporary living quarters
- the foot or fleshy cushion-like underside of the toes of an animal
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- Verb:
- add details to
- walk heavily and firmly, as when weary, or through mud
- line or stuff with soft material
- add padding to
Word Origin
- pad
- pad: [16] English has two words pad, both of them borrowed from Low German or Dutch. The ancestral meaning of pad ‘cushion’ seems to be ‘sole of the foot’, although that sense did not emerge in English until the 18th century. Flemish pad and Low German pad both denote ‘sole’, as does the presumably related Lithuanian pādas. Pad ‘tread, walk’ comes from Low German padden, a descendant of the same Germanic source as produced English path.It was originally a slang term used by 16th- and 17th-century highwayman, muggers, and the like, and its corresponding noun pad survives in footpad [17]. Paddle ‘walk in shallow water’ [16] comes from a Low German or Dutch derivative (the other paddle, ‘oar, bat’ [15], is of unknown origin).=> paddle, path
- pad (n.)
- 1550s, "bundle of straw to lie on," possibly from or related to Low German or obsolete Flemish pad "sole of the foot," which is perhaps from PIE *pent- "to tread, go" (see find (v.)), but see path (n.). Meaning "cushion-like part of an animal foot" is from 1790 in English. Generalized sense of "something soft" is from c. 1700; the sense of "a number of sheets fastened together" (in writing pad, drawing pad, etc.) is from 1865. Sense of "takeoff or landing place for a helicopter" is from 1960. The word persisted in underworld slang from early 18c. in the sense "sleeping place," and was popularized again c. 1959, originally in beatnik speech (later hippie slang) in its original English sense of "place to sleep temporarily."
- pad (v.2)
- "to stuff, increase the amount of," 1827, from pad (n.); transferred to expense accounts, etc. from 1913. Related: Padded; padding. Notion of a padded cell in an asylum or prison is from 1862 (padded room).
- pad (v.1)
- "to walk," 1550s, probably from Middle Dutch paden "walk along a path, make a path," from pad, pat "path." Originally criminals' slang, perhaps of imitative origin (sound of feet trudging on a dirt road). Related: Padded; padding.
Example
- 1. Use a laptop cooling pad that has a fan or two .
- 2. The receiver pad coils are magnetically coupled to the primary power coil .
- 3. Find a tall-backed chair , pad it with some pillows , and sit him down .
- 4. A board might also serve as an electronic bookcase from which one might download texts to a pad or tab .
- 5. A bachelor pad doesn 't necessarily scare women off .