Paddle | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Păd'dle, v. i.

verbintransitive

(păd'dl), v. i. [Diminutive of Prov. Eng. pad, to go, to walk; Prov. Ger. paddeln, padden, to walk with short steps, to paddle; N. H. Ger. patschen, to splash, dash, dabble. Cf. Fr. patouiller, patrouiller, Prov. Fr. patouiller, to paddle, dabble, paw, from patte, a paw.]

Sense 1. To use the hands; to handle or finger about.

Sense 2. To beat water with the hands or feet, for swimming or in sport.

Paddling ducks the standing lake desire. Gay.

Sense 3. Especially, to beat the water with oars; to propel a boat with a paddle. “As the men were paddling for their lives.” L’Estrange.

Păd'dle, v. t.

verbtransitive

(păd'dl), v. t. [imp. & p. p. PADDLED; p. pr. & vb. n. PADDLING.]
To propel by an oar or paddle.
To trample; to pad. [Prov. Eng.]

Pād'dle, n.

noun

(pād'dl), n. [See supra.]

An oar; especially, a sort of short oar with a broad blade, used in propelling and steering canoes and boats, by a vertical motion.
Hence, the blade or the broad part of an oar or weapon; a short, broad blade, resembling that of an oar.

Thou shalt have a paddle on thy weapon. Deut. xxiii. 13.

One of the broad boards at the circumference of a water-wheel, or on the propelling wheel of a steam-vessel.
A small gate in sluices or lock-gates to admit or let off water.
A paddle-shaped foot, as of the tortoise, crocodile, and the like.
A paddle-staff. [Prov. Eng.]
(Glass Manuf.) An instrument for stirring the sand and ashes in the furnace.