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paddock

Pronunciation: /ˈpædək/

The English word “paddock” has 14 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A small enclosure or field of grassland, especially one used to exercise or graze horses or other animals.
  2. An enclosure next to a racecourse where horses are paraded and mounted before a race and unsaddled after a race.
  3. An area at a racing circuit where the racing vehicles are parked and worked on before and between races.
  4. A field on which a game is played; a playing field.
  5. A field of grassland of any size, either enclosed by fences or delimited by geographical boundaries, especially a large area for keeping cattle or sheep.
  6. A place in a superficial deposit where ore or washdirt (“earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing”) is excavated; also, a place for storing ore, washdirt, etc.
  7. A frog.
  8. A toad.
  9. A contemptible, or malicious or nasty, person.
  10. A simple, usually triangular, sledge which is dragged along the ground to transport items.

verb

  1. To place or keep (cattle, horses, sheep, or other animals) within a paddock (noun sense 1 or 2.4); hence, to provide (such animals) with pasture.
  2. To enclose or fence in (land) to form a paddock.
  3. To excavate washdirt (“earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing”) from (a superficial deposit).
  4. To store (ore, washdirt, etc.) in a paddock (noun sense 2.5).

Etymology

The noun is almost certainly a variant of dialectal British parrock (“enclosure; park; croft, small field, paddock”), from Middle English parrok, parrock (“enclosed pasture, paddock; coop; feeding stall; cabin, hut”) [and other forms], from Old English pearroc, pearruc (“fence used to enclose a space; area enclosed by such a fence, enclosure”), from Proto-West Germanic *parruk (“enclosure; pen…

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