- present participle of wad.
wadding
Americannoun
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any fibrous or soft material for stuffing, padding, packing, etc., especially carded cotton in specially prepared sheets.
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material used as wads for guns, cartridges, etc.
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Surgery. any large dressing made of cotton or a similar absorbent material that is used to stanch the flow of blood or dress a wound.
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a wad or lump.
noun
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any fibrous or soft substance used as padding, stuffing, etc, esp sheets of carded cotton prepared for the purpose
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a piece of this
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material for wads used in cartridges or guns
Etymology
Origin of wadding
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The court also heard from Lucy Ness, who was given an urn containing "wadding and pieces of bone" instead of her baby's ashes.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
As he said in 1857, what was the point of celebrating the Fourth if the Declaration was now treated as “mere rubbish—old wadding left to rot on the battlefield”?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
The next day I woke up and I thought” — he mimes wadding up a piece of paper and tossing it away — ‘That’s never going to happen.’
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2025
Composed of salvaged vintage linen or dupioni silk and stuffed with mattresslike wadding and sometimes pieces of wood for stability, they only look hard; in reality, they’re soft, even slightly yielding.
From New York Times ● Sep. 21, 2022
Diego said, chewing his gum and wadding up his wrapper.
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
