paddock

¹ American  

[pad-uhk] / ˈpæd ək /

noun

1. a small, usually enclosed field near a stable or barn for pasturing or exercising animals.

2. the enclosure in which horses are saddled and mounted before a race.

3. Australian. any enclosed field or pasture.

---

verb (used with object)

• paddocks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• paddocked,
  past participle,  past
• paddocking
  present participle

1. to confine or enclose in or as in a paddock.

paddock ² American  

[pad-uhk] / ˈpæd ək /

noun

1. Archaic. a frog or toad.

---

paddock ¹ British  

/ ˈpædək /

noun

1. a small enclosed field, often for grazing or training horses, usually near a house or stable

2. (in horse racing) the enclosure in which horses are paraded and mounted before a race, together with the accompanying rooms

3. (in motor racing) an area near the pits where cars are worked on before races

4. any area of fenced land

5. a playing field

6. informal a stockroute or roadside area offering feed to sheep and cattle in dry times

---

verb

1. (tr) to confine (horses, etc) in a paddock

paddock ² British  

/ ˈpædək /

noun

1. Also called (Scot): puddock. archaic a frog or toad

---

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• paddocking
  present
• paddocked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• paddock
  simple
• paddocks
  simple
• have paddocked
  perfect
• has paddocked
  perfect
• am paddocking
  progressive
• are paddocking
  progressive
• is paddocking
  progressive
• have been paddocking
  perfect progressive
• has been paddocking
  perfect progressive

Past

• paddocked
  simple
• had paddocked
  perfect
• was paddocking
  progressive
• were paddocking
  progressive
• had been paddocking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will paddock
  simple
• will have paddocked
  perfect
• will be paddocking
  progressive
• will have been paddocking
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

paddock paddocks paddocked

Exploiting a scheduling quirk—Singapore’s 8 p.m. race typically follows a slate of afternoon starts in Europe—the entire paddock just lives in an alternate, nocturnal universe.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Rethinking the fractured and overly extensive breadth of the paddock and pits complex - which covers a vastly greater distance than anywhere else - would also be a good idea.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

Now the constant rumble of construction machinery has been replaced by a steady stream of vans and golf carts ferrying people to and from the paddock for this weekend's races.

From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026

Gasly is well liked within the paddock, and has many friends among the drivers, but he has long been one of F1's forgotten heroes, regardless of that win six years ago.

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

Pumpkin, Howard, and Smith brought Seabiscuit to the paddock, and drew him up beside a swaying willow hedge.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

Not bad for a venue that has occupied its current site since 1853, land that was once used for police-force horse paddocks and is a short, happy walk from downtown Melbourne.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

In her canola paddocks, she estimates there are about 8,000 to 10,000 mice per hectare - about the size of a rugby field.

From BBC ● May 30, 2026

Our research found over half of our cheesemakers were using multiple methods to reduce whey going to waste, from making animal feed to making ricotta to irrigating paddocks.

From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2024

The ducks follow a daily routine: In the morning, they go to the vineyards to prevent crop damage, and in the evening they return to their paddocks to peck at pellets of nutritious bird food.

From Reuters ● Jan. 16, 2023

The colts must have liked the mirror image; they had become inseparable in the Claiborne paddocks.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

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 Joseph Furphy

A sound like "Goood!" came from the paddocked bull.

From Thy Rocks and Rills by Robert E. Gilbert

I've got the car paddocked down near the reserve.

From The Lost Valley by James Morgan Walsh

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 Arthur Elmore Bostwick

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 Lady (Mary Anne) Barker

Related Words

• oval
• track