pad1
• noun 1 a thick piece of soft or absorbent material. 2 the fleshy underpart of an animal’s foot or of a human finger. 3 a protective guard worn over a part of the body by a sports player. 4 a number of sheets of blank paper fastened together at one edge. 5 a flat-topped structure or area used for helicopter take-off and landing or for rocket-launching. 6 informal a person’s home. • verb (padded, padding) 1 fill or cover with a pad or padding. 2 (pad out) lengthen (a speech or piece of writing) with unnecessary material. 3 chiefly N. Amer. defraud by adding false items to (an expenses claim or bill). — ORIGIN originally in the sense bundle of straw to lie on : the senses may not be of common origin; the meaning underpart of an animal’s foot is perhaps related to Low German pad ‘sole of the foot’.
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