paddock

Meaning

Noun

1. A small enclosure or field of grassland, especially one used to exercise or graze horses or other animals.
2. An enclosure next to a racecourse where horses are paraded and mounted before a race and unsaddled after a race.
3. An area at a racing circuit where the racing vehicles are parked and worked on before and between races.
4. (slang) A field on which a game is played; a playing field.
5. A field of grassland of any size, either enclosed by fences or delimited by geographical boundaries, especially a large area for keeping cattle or sheep.
6. A place in a superficial deposit where ore or washdirt (“earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing”) is excavated; also, a place for storing ore, washdirt, etc.

Verb

1. To place or keep (cattle, horses, sheep, or other animals) within a paddock (noun sense 1 or 2.4); hence, to provide (such animals) with pasture.
2. To enclose or fence in (land) to form a paddock.
3. To excavate washdirt (“earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing”) from (a superficial deposit).
4. (obsolete) To store (ore, washdirt, etc.) in a paddock (noun sense 2.5).

Hyphenated as

pad‧dock

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpædək/

Etymology

The noun is almost certainly a variant of dialectal British parrock (“enclosure; park; croft, small field, paddock”), from Middle English parrok, parrock (“enclosed pasture, paddock; coop; feeding stall; cabin, hut”) [and other forms], from Old English pearroc, pearruc (“fence used to enclose a space; area enclosed by such a fence, enclosure”), from Proto-West Germanic *parruk (“enclosure; pen for animals”), from Proto-Germanic *parrukaz (“fence; enclosure”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *barō (“bar, beam; barrier”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”). Doublet of park.
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* Danish park (“pond”)
* Dutch perk (“flowerbed; garden; pen”)
* German Pferch (“sheepfold, sheep-pen”)