Paddle \Pad"dle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Paddled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Paddling}] 1. To pat or stroke amorously, or gently. [Obsolescent]
To be paddling palms and pinching fingers. --Shak.
2. To propel with, or as with, a paddle or paddles.
3. To pad; to tread upon; to trample. [Prov. Eng.]
4. To spank with a paddle or as if with a paddle; -- usually as a disciplinary punishment of children. [PJC]
5. To mix (a viscous liquid) by stirring or beating with a paddle. [PJC]
Paddle \Pad"dle\, v. i. [Prob. for pattle, and a dim. of pat, v.; cf. also E. pad to tread, Prov. G. paddeln, padden, to walk with short steps, to paddle, G. patschen to splash, dash, dabble, F. patouiller to dabble, splash, fr. patte a paw. [root]21.] 1. To use the hands or fingers in toying; to make caressing strokes. [Obs.] --Shak.
2. To dabble in water with hands or feet; to use a paddle, or something which serves as a paddle, in swimming, in paddling a boat, etc.
As the men were paddling for their lives. --L'Estrange.
While paddling ducks the standing lake desire. --Gay.
Paddle \Pad"dle\, n. [See {Paddle}, v. i.] 1. An implement with a broad blade, which is used without a fixed fulcrum in propelling and steering canoes and boats.
2. The broad part of a paddle, with which the stroke is made; hence, any short, broad blade, resembling that of a paddle, such as that used in table tennis.
Thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon. --Deut. xxiii. 13.
3. One of the broad boards, or floats, at the circumference of a water wheel, or paddle wheel.
4. A small gate in sluices or lock gates to admit or let off water; -- also called {clough}.
5. (Zo["o]l.) A paddle-shaped foot, as of the sea turtle.
6. A paddle-shaped implement for stirring or mixing.
7. [In this sense prob. for older spaddle, a dim. of spade.] See {Paddle staff} (b), below. [Prov. Eng.]
{Paddle beam} (Shipbuilding), one of two large timbers supporting the spring beam and paddle box of a steam vessel.
{Paddle board}. See {Paddle}, n., 3.
{Paddle shaft}, the revolving shaft which carries the paddle wheel of a steam vessel.
{Paddle staff}. (a) A staff tipped with a broad blade, used by mole catchers. [Prov. Eng.] (b) A long-handled spade used to clean a plowshare; -- called also {plow staff}. [Prov. Eng.]
{Paddle steamer}, a steam vessel propelled by paddle wheels, in distinction from a screw propeller.
{Paddle wheel}, the propelling wheel of a steam vessel, having paddles (or floats) on its circumference, and revolving in a vertical plane parallel to the vessel's length.
Police say the larcenous hopes of two boat burglars were dashed when they realized they were up a creek without a paddle.
They had to paddle 200 miles upstream on the Paraguay River in Brazil because high winds had blown water plants into a solid mass that blocked their path, and later spent 17 days without touching shore on the same river because of floods.
But it is thanks to his talent for solitariness and to his monomaniacal determination to paddle between this island and that in a collapsible kayak that we owe many of the bonuses of this remarkable adventure. A kayak, yes.
But the machines' oversized paddle controls and large white-on-black graphics were deliberately included to help people with limited dexterity and vision.
The school officials also noted Mrs. Fee previously had authorized Herndon to administer three paddle swats to Tracy if he misbehaved.
The Clackamas County Juvenile Department has charged that the children routinely were beaten with a paddle or electrical cord. Some children were beaten up to 800 times while others were forced to keep count, the department said in a court petition.
His paddle emerged from the mist at the base of the falls about 10 minutes after his plunge.
One girl said she received 20 "licks" with a paddle for having rock music tapes and for cutting her bangs.
Dallas police do not have authority to paddle students, said police spokesman Ed Spencer.
But first reports said the rabbit was making straight for Carter's canoe and that he beat it back with a paddle.
In the early 1970s and Sino-American "pingpong diplomacy," Mr. Lee produced a rubber doll of the former U.S. president, in need of a shave, holding a pingpong paddle and ball.
This leaves them up a creek without a paddle."
You still get to paddle an outrigger canoe past islands inhabited by zebras, wallabees and monkeys; ride around in a carriage drawn by heavy-hoofed Clydesdales; or float on a mile-long canal in a mahogany boat from Venice.
Gorst decided to paddle all four boys, but when it was Duffey's turn, he bolted from the school and ran home, Mrs. Ramsey said.
Maurer said her research shows that educators get used to using the paddle, then employ it for lesser and lesser offenses.
To swim, he used a modified dog paddle.
The last serious accident on the Thames occurred in 1878, when the Princess Alice paddle steamer was struck by a coal carrying ship.
A judge ruled that a fundamentalist couple who took to heart the Biblical admonition against sparing the rod abused their children by spanking them with a stick and paddle, a family supporter said today.
The charges allege the parents beat their two youngest children, a 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, with a stick and a paddle until the children's buttocks were red and bruised.
Mr. Grinberg dropped out at $21,000 after his wife grabbed his bidding paddle from him.
The Fees said Herndon punched Tracy on the jaw and held him down on the floor and hit him numerous times on the buttocks with a paddle.
Like a Mississippi River paddle boat bellowing through pale green waters, the mower slashes Marlin Nadgwick's dying wheat crop into rows of straw.
Mary Sue Bruno, the principal at Westside Kindergarten School, saw the two girls snickering in the hall, and gave each child two swats on the buttocks with a wooden paddle.
We know the world's up the proverbial creek without a paddle because God's pock-marked messenger (Jurgen Prochnow) is making all these nasty things happen.
"Sometimes an albatross would land alongside," said Gillette. "It would paddle along and watch us.