wad Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a small mass of soft material
    • he used a wad of cotton to wipe the counter
  2. noun (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
    plenty; great deal; pot; sight; flock; mint; slew; mountain; deal; muckle; pile; lot; mickle; raft; quite a little; passel; hatful; mess; spate; heap; peck; stack; good deal; batch; tidy sum; mass.
    • a batch of letters
    • a deal of trouble
    • a lot of money
    • he made a mint on the stock market
    • see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos
    • it must have cost plenty
    • a slew of journalists
    • a wad of money
  3. noun a wad of something chewable as tobacco
    plug; chew; quid; cud; chaw.
  4. verb compress into a wad
    compact; bundle; pack.
    • wad paper into the box
  5. verb crowd or pack to capacity
    ram; jampack; jam; chock up; cram.
    • the theater was jampacked

WordNet

Wad noun
Etymology
See Woad.
Definitions
  1. Woad. Obs.
Wad noun
Etymology
Probably of Scand. origin; cf. Sw. vadd wadding, Dan vat, D. & G. watte. Cf. Wadmol.
Definitions
  1. A little mass, tuft, or bundle, as of hay or tow. Holland.
  2. Specifically: A little mass of some soft or flexible material, such as hay, straw, tow, paper, or old rope yarn, used for retaining a charge of powder in a gun, or for keeping the powder and shot close; also, to diminish or avoid the effects of windage. Also, by extension, a dusk of felt, pasteboard, etc., serving a similar purpose.
  3. A soft mass, especially of some loose, fibrous substance, used for various purposes, as for stopping an aperture, padding a garment, etc.
Wad transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Waded; present participle & verbal noun Wadding
Definitions
  1. To form into a mass, or wad, or into wadding; as, to wad tow or cotton.
  2. To insert or crowd a wad into; as, to wad a gun; also, to stuff or line with some soft substance, or wadding, like cotton; as, to wad a cloak.
Wad, Wadd noun (Also<
  • Wad
  • Wadd
)
Definitions
  1. (Min.) (a) An earthy oxide of manganese, or mixture of different oxides and water, with some oxide of iron, and often silica, alumina, lime, or baryta; black ocher. There are several varieties. (b) Plumbago, or black lead.

Webster 1913