paddle

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.