padding

[ pad-ing ]
See synonyms for padding on Thesaurus.com
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.

  1. the act of a person or thing that pads.

Origin of padding

1
First recorded in 1820–30; pad1 + -ing1

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use padding in a sentence

  • They swallowed their liqueurs, and the ashes of their cigars fell on the paddings of the furniture.

    Bouvard and Pcuchet | Gustave Flaubert
  • Now the dust is removed from the cushions and paddings by means of a vacuum arrangement.

    Life in a Railway Factory | Alfred Williams
  • But most of these added clauses may not unfairly be regarded as 'paddings,' put in by way of embellishment.

    The Three Additions to Daniel, A Study | William Heaford Daubney
  • There was something intolerable in their noiseless, ceaseless paddings over the pavement.

    The Lost Continent | C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne
  • Observe the “antediluvian” shape of the bat—no paddings on the legs.

British Dictionary definitions for padding

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

  1. inflated or false entries in a financial account, esp an expense account

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012