noun
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any soft material used to pad clothes, furniture, etc
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superfluous material put into a speech or written work to pad it out; waffle
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inflated or false entries in a financial account, esp an expense account
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of padding
Explanation
A cushioning or protective material is padding. When you're moving into a new apartment, you might want to wrap your dishes in padding to keep them from being damaged. Padding has many different uses, from the padding in a padded mailing envelope to the padding in a sofa cushion that gives you a soft place to sit. There's also padding inside protective sports gear and built into yoga mats. Sometimes padding is simply used to make something seem bigger, and from this meaning comes the sense of padding meaning "unnecessary extra material," especially superfluous words in a speech or a book.
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.
There was Molly Hollis, a middle-aged, Midwestern former schoolteacher whose creation required body padding and a wig; a flamboyant redhead; a nearly invisible elderly woman; and, most uncannily, Reichl’s own mother.
From Salon • Jul. 5, 2026
Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Cedric Mullins collided chest first into the blue padding of the center field wall as he made one last-ditch effort to save his team from a Dodgers home run.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 17, 2026
Firms including Bud Light beer and the Polymarket prediction market have their names emblazoned on the padding of the ring for the $60-million-dollar tournament.
From Barron's • Jun. 11, 2026
A WSJ investigation found that predatory providers are billing for phantom services, padding their hours and charging steep fees.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026
“Oh, now, there, there, little lamb, drink some more. You’ve banged yourself up quite a bit. There’s no padding on those scrawny bones of yours. Can be quite useful, you know.”
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
