different between spad vs pad

English

Etymology 1

Shortening of special adviser.

Alternative forms

• SpAd, SpAD

Noun

spad (plural spads)

1. (UK politics, informal) A government adviser, often in a political or media role.
   • 2009, Ben Wright, Hidden world of the political advisers, BBC:

     A successful stint as a spad can be a crucial political apprenticeship - as many of the current crop of professional politicians including the Miliband brothers, David Cameron and George Osborne can testify - so long as they stay in the dark.

   • 2012, Avoid The Thick of It-style spad appointments, ministers told, The Guardian:

     The hit BBC sitcom satirising the inner workings of Whitehall and the so-called spads contains "more than a grain of truth", the head of the cross-party public administration select committee has warned.

Etymology 2

Noun

spad (plural spads)

1. (mining) A nail one or two inches long, of iron, brass, tin, or tinner iron, with a hole through the flattened head, used to mark stations in underground surveying.

Anagrams

• APDS, ASPD, PDAs, SaPD, daps, pads

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?spat]

Noun

spad m

1. fallout

Further reading

• spad in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• spad in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

spad

1. imperative of spada

Polish

Etymology

Deverbal of spada?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spat/

Noun

spad m inan

1. (printing) bleed
2. A fallen nut or fruit.
3. (collective) fallen nuts or fruit
4. slope, gradient

Declension

Further reading

• spad in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• spad in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish spadh. Cognate with Icelandic spað and Danish spad.

Noun

spad n

1. broth, decoction
2. (colloquial) a body of water

Usage notes

Colloquial sense often used in the abbreviated definite singular form spat, for example hoppa i spat ("jump in the water") or trilla i spat ("fall in the water").

Declension

References

• spad in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• spad in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pæd/
• Hyphenation: pad
• Rhymes: -æd

Etymology 1

1554, "bundle of straw to lie on", probably from Low German or West Flemish pad (“sole of the foot”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to pass”), which would make it related to both path and find.

Noun

pad (plural pads)

1. A flattened mass of anything soft, to sit or lie on.
2. A cushion used as a saddle without a tree or frame.
3. A soft, or small, cushion.
4. A cushion-like thickening of the skin on the under side of the toes of animals.
5. The mostly hairless flesh located on the bottom of an animal's foot or paw.
6. Any cushion-like part of the human body, especially the ends of the fingers.
7. A stuffed guard or protection, especially one worn on the legs of horses to prevent bruising.
8. A soft bag or cushion to relieve pressure, support a part, etc.
9. A sanitary napkin.
10. (US) A floating leaf of a water lily or similar plant.
11. (cricket) A soft cover for a batsman's leg that protects it from damage when hit by the ball.
12. A kind of cushion for writing upon, or for blotting, especially one formed of many flat sheets of writing paper; now especially such a block of paper sheets as used to write on.
13. A panel or strip of material designed to be sensitive to pressure or touch.
14. A keypad.
15. A flat surface or area from which a helicopter or other aircraft may land or be launched.
16. An electrical extension cord with a multi-port socket on one end: "trip cord"
17. The effect produced by sustained lower reed notes in a musical piece, most common in blues music.
18. A synthesizer instrument sound used for sustained background sounds.

    Synonym: synth pad

19. (US, slang) A bed.
20. (colloquial) A small house, apartment, or mobile home occupied by a single person; such as a bachelor, playboy, etc.
21. (Britain, slang) A prison cell.
22. (cryptography) A random key (originally written on a disposable pad) of the same length as the plaintext.
23. A mousepad.
24. (electronics) The amount by which a signal has been reduced.
25. (nautical) A piece of timber fixed on a beam to fit the curve of the deck.
    • 1875, William Clark Russell, Jilted – Or My Uncle's Scheme

      let us at least trust that the hair-pins will do their duty, and maintain the respectability of passion by holding the pads and puffs and frizettes in their proper places.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• synth pad

Translations

Verb

pad (third-person singular simple present pads, present participle padding, simple past and past participle padded)

1. (transitive) To stuff.
2. (transitive) To furnish with a pad or padding.
3. (transitive) To increase the size of, especially by adding undesirable filler.

4. (transitive) To imbue uniformly with a mordant.

5. (transitive, cricket) To deliberately play the ball with the leg pad instead of the bat.

Derived terms

• well-padded

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English pade, padde, from Old English padde, from Proto-Germanic *padd? (“toad”). Cognate with Dutch pad, German Low German Pad (“toad”), dialectal German Padde, Danish padde, Swedish padda, Icelandic padda (“toad”), and possibly to English paddle.

Alternative forms

• padde

Noun

pad (plural pads)

1. (Britain, dialectal) A toad.

Derived terms

• paddock
• padstool
• shelpad

Etymology 3

From Dutch pad or Middle Low German pat (“path”). Doublet of path.

Noun

pad (plural pads)

1. (Britain, dialectal, Australia, Ireland) A footpath, particularly one unformed or unmaintained; a road or track. See footpad.
2. An easy-paced horse; a padnag.
   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott

     an abbot on an ambling pad

3. (Britain, obsolete) A robber that infests the road on foot; a highwayman or footpad.
   • 1720, John Gay, "Fables", in Poems on Several Occasions

     A Pad came pacing down the way :
     The Cur, with never-ceasing tongue ,
     Upon the passing trav'ler sprung

Derived terms

• on the pad

Etymology 4

Perhaps an alteration of ped.

Noun

pad (plural pads)

1. (Britain, dialectal) A type of wickerwork basket, especially as used as a measure of fish or other goods.

Etymology 5

Probably partly from Middle Low German [Term?], partly imitative. Some senses possibly influenced by pad (“soft part of an animal's foot”, noun).

Verb

pad (third-person singular simple present pads, present participle padding, simple past and past participle padded)

1. (transitive) To travel along (a road, path etc.).
   • 1727, William Somervile, The Fortune Hunter

     Padding the streets for half a crown.

2. (intransitive) To travel on foot.
3. (intransitive) To wear a path by walking.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXII

     Who were the strugglers, what war did they wage, / Whose savage trample thus could pad the dank / Soil to a plash? [...]

4. (intransitive) To walk softly, quietly or steadily, especially without shoes.
   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses, while the Rabbit stared hard to see which side the clockwork stuck out...

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To practise highway robbery.
   • 1689, Cotton Mather, Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions

     Their chief Argument is, That they never saw any Witches, therefore there are none. Just as if you or I should say, We never met with any Robbers on the Road, therefore there never was any Padding there.

Translations

Etymology 6

Probably imitative, perhaps related to or influenced by Etymology 5, above.

Interjection

pad

1. Indicating a soft flat sound, as of bare footsteps.

   I heard her soft footsteps, pad, pad along the corridor.

Translations

Noun

pad (plural pads)

1. The sound of soft footsteps, or a similar noise made by an animal etc.

Translations

Derived terms

• padless

References

• Pad on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• ADP, APD, DPA, PDA, dap

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch pad.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [p?t]

Noun

pad (plural paaie, diminutive paadjie)

1. path; way; street

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?t/
• Hyphenation: pad
• Rhymes: -?t

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch pat, from Old Dutch path, from Proto-Germanic *paþaz (“path”). Cognate with English path, West Frisian paad and German Pfad.

Noun

pad n (plural paden, diminutive paadje n)

1. path (narrow road, usually unpaved)

Derived terms

• bergpad
• bospad
• duinpad
• fietspad
• gangpad
• grindpad
• hazenpad
• kerkpad
• kiezelpad
• modderpad
• olifantenpad
• padvinder
• ruiterpad
• schelpenpad
• tuinpad
• voetpad
• wandelpad
• zandpad
• zijpad

Descendants

• Afrikaans: pad

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch padde, pedde, from Proto-Germanic *padd? (“toad”). Cognate with Old English padde (compare English paddock), Old Norse padda (Swedish padda, Danish/Norwegian padde).

Noun

pad f (plural padden, diminutive padje n)

1. toad (an amphibian of the order Anura similar to a frog with shorter legs and more ragged skin)

Derived terms

• bruine pad
• donderpad
• gewone pad
• groene pad
• knoflookpad
• paddenstoel
• paddentrek
• reuzenpad
• rugstreeppad
• schildpad
• Surinaamse pad
• vuurbuikpad
• vuurpad

Descendants

• Afrikaans: padda

Etymology 3

Noun

pad c (plural padden, diminutive padje n)

1. (cycling) The slot in the frame that accepts the axle of the wheel; dropout.

Hungarian

Etymology

From a Slavic language, compare Serbo-Croatian pod.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?p?d]
• Rhymes: -?d

Noun

pad (plural padok)

1. bench
2. (education) desk (of students in school, traditionally built together with the seats)

   Synonym: iskolapad

3. (religion) pew (in a church)
4. (law) dock (of the defendant, in court), stand (of a witness, in court)
5. (dialectal) attic, loft

   Synonym: padlás

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

• pad in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pâ?d/

Noun

p?d m (Cyrillic spelling ????)

1. fall

Declension

Related terms

• p?sti

Volapük

Noun

pad (nominative plural pads)

1. page

Declension