Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To finger idly or fondly; toy or trifle with the fingers, as in fondling.
  • To dabble or play about in or as in water.
  • To sail or swim along or about with short strokes of a paddle or oar; row or move about or along by means of a paddle.
  • To move along by means of paddles or float-boards, as a steamboat.
  • To move in the water by means of webbed feet, flippers, or fins, as a duck, turtle, fish, penguin, etc.
  • To finger; play with; toy with.
  • To propel by paddle or oar: as, to paddle a canoe.
  • To strike with the open hand, or with some flat object, as a board; spank.
  • noun A small spade, especially a small spade used to clean a plow; a plow-staff; a paddle-staff.
  • noun An oar; specifically, a sort of short oar having one blade or two (one at each end), held in the hands (not resting in the rowlock) and dipped into the water with a more or less vertical motion: used especially for propelling canoes.
  • noun The blade or broad part of an oar.
  • noun In zoology: A fore limb constructed to answer the purpose of a fin or flipper, as that of a penguin, a whale, a sea-turtle, a plesiosaurus, or an ichthyosaurus. See cuts under Ichthyosaurus and penguin.
  • noun In Ctenophora, one of the rows of cilia which run parallel with the longitudinal canals of the body; a ctenophore or paddle-row.
  • noun The long flat snout of the paddle-fish.
  • noun One of the float-boards placed on the circumference of the paddle-wheel of a steamboat.
  • noun A panel made to fit the openings left in lock-gates and sluices for the purpose of letting the water in and out as may be required; a clough.
  • noun An implement with a flat broad blade and a handle, resembling a paddle.
  • noun The lump-fish, Cyclopterus lumpus. See pad-dlecock. Also cockpaidle.
  • To throw the feet outward with a circular sweep when trotting: said of horses. Also dish.
  • In leather manuf., to wash or color by means of a paddle. See paddle, n., 8.
  • To pat, as the ore in a roasting-furnace, with the flat side of a paddle.
  • noun A tank containing a revolving wheel or paddle for washing, tanning, or coloring skins.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To use the hands or fingers in toying; to make caressing strokes.
  • intransitive verb To dabble in water with hands or feet; to use a paddle, or something which serves as a paddle, in swimming, in paddling a boat, etc.
  • transitive verb Obsolescent To pat or stroke amorously, or gently.
  • transitive verb To propel with, or as with, a paddle or paddles.
  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. To pad; to tread upon; to trample.
  • transitive verb To spank with a paddle or as if with a paddle; -- usually as a disciplinary punishment of children.
  • transitive verb To mix (a viscous liquid) by stirring or beating with a paddle.
  • noun An implement with a broad blade, which is used without a fixed fulcrum in propelling and steering canoes and boats.
  • noun The broad part of a paddle, with which the stroke is made
  • noun One of the broad boards, or floats, at the circumference of a water wheel, or paddle wheel.
  • noun A small gate in sluices or lock gates to admit or let off water; -- also called clough.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A paddle-shaped foot, as of the sea turtle.
  • noun A paddle-shaped implement for stirring or mixing.
  • noun Prov. Eng. See Paddle staff (b), below.
  • noun (Shipbuilding) one of two large timbers supporting the spring beam and paddle box of a steam vessel.
  • noun See Paddle, n., 3.
  • noun the revolving shaft which carries the paddle wheel of a steam vessel.
  • noun [Prov. Eng.], [Prov. Eng.] A long-handled spade used to clean a plowshare; -- called also plow staff.
  • noun a steam vessel propelled by paddle wheels, in distinction from a screw propeller.
  • noun the propelling wheel of a steam vessel, having paddles (or floats) on its circumference, and revolving in a vertical plane parallel to the vessel's length.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive (UK) To walk or dabble playfully in shallow water, especially at the seaside.
  • verb To toddle
  • verb archaic (intransitive) To toy or caress using hands or fingers
  • noun A two-handed, single-bladed oar used to propel a canoe or a small boat.
  • noun A double-bladed oar used for kayaking.
  • noun Time spent on paddling.
  • noun A slat of a paddleboat's wheel.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Recorded since 1530, probably cognate with Low German paddeln "to tramp about," frequent. of padjen "to tramp, to run in short steps," from pad (also in Dutch dialects)

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English padell (1407, "small spade"), from Medieval Latin padela, perhaps from Latin patella "pan, plate", the diminutive of patina

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