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Showing results for "wadding"
  • present participle of wad.
Synonyms

wadding

American  
[wod-ing] / ˈwɒd ɪŋ /

noun

  1. any fibrous or soft material for stuffing, padding, packing, etc., especially carded cotton in specially prepared sheets.

  2. material used as wads for guns, cartridges, etc.

  3. Surgery. any large dressing made of cotton or a similar absorbent material that is used to stanch the flow of blood or dress a wound.

  4. a wad or lump.


wadding British  
/ ˈwɒdɪŋ /

noun

    1. any fibrous or soft substance used as padding, stuffing, etc, esp sheets of carded cotton prepared for the purpose

    2. a piece of this

  1. material for wads used in cartridges or guns

"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

Etymology

Origin of wadding

First recorded in 1620–30; wad 1 + -ing 1

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:

As he said in 1857, what was the point of celebrating the Fourth if the Declaration was now treated as “mere rubbish—old wadding left to rot on the battlefield”?

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 1, 2026

It is a pastime that requires next-level commitment, though, as Ioan often spends days deep underground at a time, digging passages, or wadding through partially submerged caves.

From BBC Oct. 14, 2023

On some trips, the boys would convince Dad to play football, wadding up a sock to serve as their pigskin.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 6, 2023

Composed of salvaged vintage linen or dupioni silk and stuffed with mattresslike wadding and sometimes pieces of wood for stability, they only look hard; in reality, they’re soft, even slightly yielding.

From New York Times Sep. 21, 2022

Then he dipped the torch he was holding into the bucket, took it out again, and held its dripping head of wadding to one of its burning sisters.

From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke

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