paddock
1 Americannoun
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a small, usually enclosed field near a stable or barn for pasturing or exercising animals.
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the enclosure in which horses are saddled and mounted before a race.
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Australian. any enclosed field or pasture.
verb (used with object)
noun
noun
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a small enclosed field, often for grazing or training horses, usually near a house or stable
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(in horse racing) the enclosure in which horses are paraded and mounted before a race, together with the accompanying rooms
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(in motor racing) an area near the pits where cars are worked on before races
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any area of fenced land
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a playing field
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informal a stockroute or roadside area offering feed to sheep and cattle in dry times
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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paddocksimple
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paddockssimple
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have paddockedperfect
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has paddockedperfect
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am paddockingprogressive
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are paddockingprogressive
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is paddockingprogressive
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have been paddockingperfect progressive
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has been paddockingperfect progressive
Past
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paddockedsimple
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had paddockedperfect
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was paddockingprogressive
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were paddockingprogressive
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had been paddockingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of paddock1
1540–50; variant of Middle English parrok, with r heard as flapped d; Old English pearroc enclosure, originally fence. See park
Origin of paddock2
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English paddok(e), derivative of early Middle English pad “toad” (compare English dialectal pad “frog”); akin to Dutch, Low German pad, Old Norse padda; see -ock
Explanation
A paddock is an area that holds racehorses before a race. Jockeys get the horses ready to go in the paddock. If you've ever gone to a horse race, or seen a race like the Kentucky Derby on TV, you've seen a paddock. This is the pen for the horses, where they hang out before racing. In the paddock, horses are saddled and paraded around by their jockeys. Two other meanings of paddock are related: one is a field for horses on a farm, and the other is an area for race cars to prepare before a race.
Vocabulary lists containing paddock
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He took the unusual step of leaving the paddock between final practice and qualifying to try to get himself in the right head space for the session.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
The Vienna native had already made a fortune as a tech investor before he set foot on a Formula One paddock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
Porsche Carrera Cup autograph session, Porsche Carrera Cup paddock, main expo hall; 12:05-1 p.m.,
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026
The court previously heard Williams passed two police officers as he drove to the paddock, telling them: "There's lampers on my gallops, they are there now."
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026
Hagrid untied the hippogriffs one by one, and soon people were bowing nervously, all over the paddock.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
Away from Formula One paddocks and movie sets, Verhoeven's story began amid a turbulent childhood in Bergen op Zoom, near the Belgian border.
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
The property is miles from the highway, accessible on two-lane roads lined by horse paddocks, white fences and canopies of gnarled live oaks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2024
In Kentucky, Silver Charm’s daily routine is simple: He poses for tour group photos and mingles with neighbors in adjoining paddocks after being let out into his football field-sized paddock early in the morning.
From Seattle Times ● May 1, 2024
Hence, these findings should be tested using experimental burns of crops in paddocks.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2023
Down the middle of the valley ran a stream with marshy paddocks on either side.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
Shakespeare himself would have been commonplace had he been paddocked in a thinly shaven vocabulary, and Phidias, had he worked in wax, only a more inspired Mrs. Jarley.
From The Library and Society Reprints of Papers and Addresses by Bostwick, Arthur Elmore
Wild and shy, as paddocked merinos always are, these had withdrawn to the quietest places they could find, and were there making the best of a bad job.
From Such Is Life by Furphy, Joseph
A sound like "Goood!" came from the paddocked bull.
From Thy Rocks and Rills by Gilbert, Robert E.
We had a beautiful, still morning for our ride, and reached the station—a shed standing out on the plain—in time to see our horses safely paddocked before the train started for Christchurch.
From Station Life in New Zealand by Barker, Lady (Mary Anne)
I've got the car paddocked down near the reserve.
From The Lost Valley by Walsh, James Morgan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
