padding

[ pad-ing ]

noun

1. material, as cotton or straw, used to pad something.
2. something added unnecessarily or dishonestly, as verbiage to a speech or a false charge on an expense account.
3. the act of a person or thing that pads. pad.

padding

/ ˈpædɪŋ /

noun

1. any soft material used to pad clothes, furniture, etc
2. superfluous material put into a speech or written work to pad it out; waffle
3. inflated or false entries in a financial account, esp an expense account

Word History and Origins

Origin of padding¹

First recorded in 1820–30; pad ¹ + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

Luckily, these qualities can be balanced out—be sure to look for a chair with lots of padding to round out your posture.

From Popular-Science

Five states — Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, Illinois and Kansas — have less than a week of padding.

From Time

You want your goggles to have a great anti-fogging design and comfortable padding.

From Popular-Science

He pushed through it with the treatments and padding and everything, but he never made an excuse, not even to me.

From Washington Post

Along with its surprisingly powerful onboard speaker, the DualSense’s tremors can convey complex in-game concepts—close your eyes and you can still tell the difference between walking through crunchy gravel or padding across a sturdy castle floor.

From Popular-Science

Traditional coach seats gave the illusion of comfortable padding but were angular, not reflecting body shapes.

From The Daily Beast

There are many other risky activities that could benefit from an extra layer of inflated padding.

From The Daily Beast

How's he going to feel padding around the two miles of black- and white-tiled corridors over there?

From The Daily Beast

For Richard Nixon, the war on drugs was more than just a formula for padding arrest statistics and looking tough on law and order.

From The Daily Beast

In addition, there have been allegations of widespread padding of crime statistics.

From The Daily Beast

Next morning Scattergood was about early, padding slowly up and down the crossed streets which made up the village.

From Project Gutenberg

Jess worked hard over the head, pushing the padding well into the blunt nose.

From Project Gutenberg

There was a swift padding of moccasined feet through the hall leading to the Indian agent's office.

From Project Gutenberg

In The Demon I have found some beautiful things, but a good deal of padding, too.

From Project Gutenberg

Bundle after bundle he stowed away about his person, regularly padding his chest under his shirt.

From Project Gutenberg