Dictionary

paddy paw en · NOUN

Etymology

pad + -y + paw

Meanings

1. An animal's paw with a soft pad.
   • He reached out a paddy paw. Bat. Bat. The door bounced ajar. Max walked in. 2002, Hazel Hutchins, TJ and the Cats:
   • My voice was velvet-smooth. "Be careful, though. I'm not exactly defenseless myself." From my paddy-paw a talon popped, curved like a sickle moon. 2006, Jonathan Stroud, Ptolemy's Gate:
   • Mowgli was sitting cross-legged, and explaining things with his forefinger in his usual way, when Bagheera put out a paddy paw and pulled him over backwards into the water. 1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, “How Fear Came”, in The Second Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 9:

Forms