vbl. sb. [-ING1.]
1. The action of WAD v.1
1778. [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 14 Sept. 1776. Whether the crop be thick or thin, Wadding puts it equally out of harm’s way.
2. concr. Any soft, pliable material from which gun-wads are made; also, a wad.
1627. Capt. J. Smith, Sea Gram., xiv. 66. Waddings is Okum, old clouts, or straw, put after the powder and the Bullet.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 8 Nov. To the Office of the Ordnance, to discourse about wadding for guns.
1742. Phil. Trans., XLII. 175. The Waddings used in all these … Experiments, were of thick Leather cut round, to fit the Bore of the Piece.
1815. Croker, in Croker Papers (1884), I. iii. 73. The whole of the extent … was strewed with the cartridges and waddings of the cannon.
1833. Reg. Instr. Cavalry, I. 31. The recruit is to be instructed … to ram the paper, as wadding, home.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., liv. I found the wadding of the pistol with which the deceased Mr. Tulkinghorn was shot.
3. Any loose, fibrous material for use as a padding, stuffing, quilting, etc. Now chiefly, cotton-wool formed into a fleecy layer.
1734. Grub St. Jrnl., 2 May, 4/1. Handsome Gowns for Ladies, with Silk Waddings.
1737. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Wadding, a thin, coarse, woollen Manufacture made to line Men’s Morning Gowns, the Plaits of their Coats, &c.
1755. Johnson, Wadding, a kind of soft stuff loosely woven, with which the skirts of coats are stuffed out.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 31. A generation more refin’d Improv’d the simple plan;… And o’er the seat, with plenteous wadding stuff’d, Induc’d a splendid cover.
1802. M. Cutler, in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888), II. 113. I presented him a specimen of wadding for Ladies’ cloaks.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, s.v., Wadding [for garments] is now made with a lap or fleece of cotton prepared by the carding-engine, which is applied to tissue paper by a coat of size.
1865. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 493. A small ball of cotton wool or wadding enclosed in a piece of linen rag.
1902. Hannan, Textile Fibres, 54. The raw material … when beaten out soft is used for wadding in clothing and coverlets.
1904. Woollen Draper’s Terms, in Tailor & Cutter, 4 Aug., 480/2. Wadding: A loose fibrous material made of cotton waste; one side is finished with paper face; used for padding purposes.
fig. 1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Diogenes & Plato, Wks. I. 455/1. Aristoteles, and all the rest of you, must have the wadding of straw and saw-dust shaken out, and then we shall know pretty nearly your real weight and magnitude.
