pad

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pad1

▶noun

• 1 a thick piece of soft or absorbent material.

  ■ a protective guard worn over a part of the body by a sports player.

• 2 the fleshy underpart of an animal's foot or of a human finger.

• 3 a number of sheets of blank paper fastened together at one edge.

• 4 a flat-topped structure or area used for helicopter take-off and landing or for rocket-launching.

• 5 informal a person's home.

• 6 Electronics a flat area on a track of a printed circuit or on the edge of an integrated circuit to which wires or component leads can be attached to make an electrical connection.

▶verb (pads, padding, padded)

• 1 (often as adj. padded) fill or cover with a pad.

• 2 (pad something out) lengthen a speech or piece of writing with unnecessary material.

• 3 N. Amer. defraud by adding false items to (an expenses claim or bill).

• 4 (pad up) (in cricket) put on protective pads.

– derivatives
padding noun.

– origin C16 (in the sense ‘bundle of straw to lie on’): of uncertain origin; the meaning ‘underpart of an animal's foot’ is perh. rel. to Low Ger. pad ‘sole of the foot’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pad2

▶verb (pads, padding, padded) walk with steady steps making a soft, dull sound. ▶noun the sound of such steps.

– origin C16: from Low Ger. padden ‘to tread, go along a path’, partly imitative.