Dictionary

paddling en · VERB · etymology 1

Etymology

From paddle + -ing.

Meanings

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present) present participle and gerund of paddle
   form of paddle

paddling en · NOUN · etymology 2

Etymology

From Middle English padelynge, equivalent to paddle + -ing.

Meanings

1. The act of using a paddle.
2. An act of corporal punishment consisting of spanking the buttocks with a paddle.
3. (collective) A group of ducks (mallards, etc.) on the water.
   • It is by no means unusual in the early part of winter to find paddlings of mallards unaccompanied by ducks. 1859, Henry Coleman Folkard, The Wild-fowler: A Treatise on Ancient and Modern Wild-fowling, Historical and Practical, page 239:
   • His gaze shifted from the paddlings of ducks and rested upon a gentle slope opposite the pond. 1998, Ge Fei, edited by Jing Wang, China's Avant-Garde Fiction: An Anthology, Duke University Press, Whistling, page 45:
   • Having detected, by sound, a fine paddling of ducks feeding in a small bay, the shore of which was skirted by a thick copse, to the shade of the latter I proceeded in my punt. 1859, Henry Coleman FOLKARD, The Wild-Fowler: a Treatise on Ancient and Modern Wild-Fowling, Historical and Practical, page 233:
   • Behind her trailed twelve more English ships of the line like a paddling of ducklings. 2018, Gerald Stulc, The Surgion's Mate, Sarasota, Florida: First Edition Design Publishing:
   • —some of the words were caught and torn away on a gust of wind which stirred the osier beds and ruffled among paddlings of ducks 2010, Margaret Campbell Barnes, Within the Hollow Crown: A Valiant King's Struggle to Save His Country, His Dynasty, and His Love, Sourcebooks, page 33:

Forms

Translations (3)

fi melominen (collective noun for ducks) · fi melonta (collective noun for ducks) · nl toom (collective noun for ducks)