paddock.
A small enclosure or field of grassland, especially one used to exercise or graze horses or other animals.
Meaning & usage
A small enclosure or field of grassland, especially one used to exercise or graze horses or other animals.
An enclosure next to a racecourse where horses are paraded and mounted before a race and unsaddled after a race.
An area at a racing circuit where the racing vehicles are parked and worked on before and between races.
A field on which a game is played; a playing field.
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.
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.
Where this word comes from
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 for animals”), from Proto-Germanic *parrukaz (“fence; enclosure”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *barō (“bar, beam; barrier”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”). Equivalent to park + -ock. Doublet of park. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * Danish park (“pond”) * Dutch perk (“flowerbed; garden; pen”) * German Pferch (“sheepfold, sheep-pen”)
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.
To enclose or fence in (land) to form a paddock.
To excavate washdirt (“earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing”) from (a superficial deposit).
To store (ore, washdirt, etc.) in a paddock (noun sense 2.5).
Where this word comes from
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 for animals”), from Proto-Germanic *parrukaz (“fence; enclosure”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *barō (“bar, beam; barrier”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”). Equivalent to park + -ock. Doublet of park. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * Danish park (“pond”) * Dutch perk (“flowerbed; garden; pen”) * German Pferch (“sheepfold, sheep-pen”)
A frog.
Cold as a paddock.
A toad.
A contemptible, or malicious or nasty, person.
A simple, usually triangular, sledge which is dragged along the ground to transport items.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English paddok, paddoke (“frog; toad”) [and other forms], from pad, pade (“frog; toad”) + -ok (diminutive suffix). Pad, pade is derived from Old English *pada, *padda, padde, from Proto-West Germanic *paddā, from Proto-Germanic *paddǭ (“toad”); further etymology uncertain, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to swell”). The English word is analysable as pad (“(Britain, dialectal) frog; toad”) + -ock (suffix forming nouns, originally with diminutive senses). Sense 2 (“sledge”) is probably from the supposed resemblance of the object to a frog or toad.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.