name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
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"We had a nice paddle this morning."
"The paddle practically ousted the British cane for spankings in the independent US."
"(UK)"
"And it really is a paddle, too, with a blade big enough to hold several sampling glasses of different beers (known for some reason as a 'flight') for customers to try. Beer paddles have become very popular in American craft beer bars: […]"
"A sea turtle's paddles make it swim almost as fast as land tortoises are slow."
"A large ( 13 x 25 cm ) paddle of skin was used to cover a large wound following a temporal bone resection."
"as the Men were Paddling for their Lives"
"Do you think we'll get paddled? They can't paddle me! I'm a girl!!"
"[…] little feet paddling round and about a man's bed and following wherever he went."
"to be paddling palms and pinching fingers."
"His wife caught him out with that blonde and then he was really up shit creek without a paddle."
A two-handed implement consisting of a shaft with one or two blades attached to the end(s) used to propel a canoe, kayak or a small boat. A paddle is unattached to the boat and freely operated with the hands, compared with an oar which is attached to the boat at a pivot point.; A single-bladed version is typically used on canoes and some other small boats.
Common synonyms include: agitate, agitator, amble, asperge, barge, beat.
His wife caught him out with that blonde and then he was really up shit creek without a paddle.
Pronounced /ˈpædl̩/.
Partly from the verb paddle ("to splash, dabble"; see below) and partly from Middle English padell (“small spade”). Middle English padell is from Medieval Latin padela, itself of uncertain origin: perhaps an alteration of Middle English *spaddle (see also spaddle), a diminutive of spade; or from Latin patella (“pan, plate”), the diminutive of patina, or a merger of the two. Compare Ancient Greek πηδάλιον (pēdálion, “rudder, steering oar”), derived from πηδόν (pēdón, “the blade of an oar; an oar”).
Recorded since 1530, probably cognate with Low German paddeln (“to tramp about”), frequentative form of padjen (“to tramp, run in short steps”), from pad (also in Dutch dialects). Compare also Saterland Frisian paddelje (“to paddle”).