PADDLE

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does paddle mean? 

• PADDLE (noun)
  The noun PADDLE has 4 senses:

1. small wooden bat with a flat surface; used for hitting balls in various games

2. a blade of a paddle wheel or water wheel

3. an instrument of punishment consisting of a flat board

4. a short light oar used without an oarlock to propel a canoe or small boat

  Familiarity information: PADDLE used as a noun is uncommon.

• PADDLE (verb)
  The verb PADDLE has 6 senses:

1. propel with a paddle

2. play in or as if in water, as of small children

3. swim like a dog in shallow water

4. walk unsteadily

5. give a spanking to; subject to a spanking

6. stir with a paddle

  Familiarity information: PADDLE used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PADDLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Small wooden bat with a flat surface; used for hitting balls in various games

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("paddle" is a kind of...):

bat (a club used for hitting a ball in various games)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "paddle"):

pingpong paddle; table-tennis bat; table-tennis racquet (paddle used to play table tennis)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A blade of a paddle wheel or water wheel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("paddle" is a kind of...):

blade; vane (flat surface that rotates and pushes against air or water)

Holonyms ("paddle" is a part of...):

mill wheel; millwheel (water wheel that is used to drive machinery in a mill)

paddle wheel; paddlewheel (a large wheel fitted with paddles and driven by an engine in order to propel a boat)

Derivation:

paddle (stir with a paddle)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An instrument of punishment consisting of a flat board

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("paddle" is a kind of...):

instrument of punishment (an instrument designed and used to punish a condemned person)

Derivation:

paddle (give a spanking to; subject to a spanking)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A short light oar used without an oarlock to propel a canoe or small boat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

boat paddle; paddle

Hypernyms ("paddle" is a kind of...):

oar (an implement used to propel or steer a boat)

Derivation:

paddle (propel with a paddle)

• PADDLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they paddle    ... he / she / it paddles   
Past simple: paddled   
Past participle: paddled   
-ing form: paddling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Propel with a paddle

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

paddle your own canoe

Hypernyms (to "paddle" is one way to...):

boat (ride in a boat on water)

Domain category:

athletics; sport (an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "paddle"):

feather; square (turn the paddle; in canoeing)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

paddle (a short light oar used without an oarlock to propel a canoe or small boat)

paddler (someone paddling a canoe)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Play in or as if in water, as of small children

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

dabble; paddle; splash around

Hypernyms (to "paddle" is one way to...):

play (be at play; be engaged in playful activity; amuse oneself in a way characteristic of children)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Swim like a dog in shallow water

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "paddle" is one way to...):

swim (travel through water)

Domain category:

aquatics; water sport (sports that involve bodies of water)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 4

Meaning:

Walk unsteadily

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

coggle; dodder; paddle; toddle; totter; waddle

Context example:

small children toddle

Hypernyms (to "paddle" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The children paddle to the playground

Sense 5

Meaning:

Give a spanking to; subject to a spanking

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

larrup; paddle; spank

Hypernyms (to "paddle" is one way to...):

beat; beat up; work over (give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to paddle the prisoners

Derivation:

paddle (an instrument of punishment consisting of a flat board)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Stir with a paddle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "paddle" is one way to...):

stir (move an implement through)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

paddle (a blade of a paddle wheel or water wheel)

 Context examples 

I began after a little to grow very bold and sat up to try my skill at paddling.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The next day I sailed to another island, and thence to a third and fourth, sometimes using my sail, and sometimes my paddles.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Moti laughed and shook the salt water from his eyes, and together they paddled in to the pounded-coral beach where Tati's grass walls through the cocoanut-palms showed golden in the setting sun.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Kelly ripped up a bottom board and began paddling, but dropped it with a cry of pain as its splinters drove into his hands.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I had worn out my boots paddling up office stairs, and I seemed just as far from getting a billet as ever.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Grey Beaver picked up the paddle.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Instantly a thunderous shout of delight burst from them, and we saw them rise from their seats, waving their paddles and spears madly in the air.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Last day to Dawson very bad. Shore-ice in all the eddies, mush-ice in the stream. I cannot paddle. The canoe freeze to ice.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Could swim like a duck, paddled round the castle till he came to a little door guarded by two stout fellows, knocked their heads together till they cracked like a couple of nuts, then, by a trifling exertion of his prodigious strength, he smashed in the door, went up a pair of stone steps covered with dust a foot thick, toads as big as your fist, and spiders that would frighten you into hysterics, Miss March.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I felt the silence, although I was hardly conscious of its extreme profundity, until my ear was suddenly arrested by the paddling of oars near the shore, and a person landed close to my house.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)