padding

American  

[pad-ing] / ˈpæd ɪŋ /

noun

• paddings
  plural

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.

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padding British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• paddings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of padding

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

Explanation

A cushioning or protective material is padding. When you're moving into a new apartment, you might want to wrap your dishes in padding to keep them from being damaged. Padding has many different uses, from the padding in a padded mailing envelope to the padding in a sofa cushion that gives you a soft place to sit. There's also padding inside protective sports gear and built into yoga mats. Sometimes padding is simply used to make something seem bigger, and from this meaning comes the sense of padding meaning "unnecessary extra material," especially superfluous words in a speech or a book.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

padding paddings

“Do I need to hire more people? Is this going to slow down at all?” says Porter, who attributes the surge in part to stock-market gains padding boomers’ retirement savings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Issues have reportedly been raised about padding in bras that could result in riders gaining one second per kilometre.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

There was Molly Hollis, a middle-aged, Midwestern former schoolteacher whose creation required body padding and a wig; a flamboyant redhead; a nearly invisible elderly woman; and, most uncannily, Reichl’s own mother.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Cedric Mullins collided chest first into the blue padding of the center field wall as he made one last-ditch effort to save his team from a Dodgers home run.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026

My leg’s still shrinking, so I need the extra padding to keep my socket snug.

From "The Running Dream" by Wendelin Van Draanen

The freshly dead were still encased in woolen paddings or blue uniforms.

From Time Magazine Archive

Her gowns were even pressed here and there among their paddings.

From Mistress Penwick by Dutton Payne

The book, when pulled to pieces, without end papers and sewing, should be about one-sixth thinner than with the paddings of the cover, thin books, of course, a little more.

From Practical Bookbinding by Paul Adam

I have got rid of the trammels pretty well,—haven't I?—have unshackled myself, and thrown off the paddings, and the wrappings, and the swaddling clothes.

From He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope

There was something intolerable in their noiseless, ceaseless paddings over the pavement.

From The Lost Continent by Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne