subs. (old cant).—1. A path; a road or highway. Also HIGH-PAD.
1573. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (1814), 66. The HYGH PAD, the high way.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 40 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874], s.v.
1611. MIDDLETON and DEKKER, The Roaring Girle, v. 1. Avast, to the PAD, let us bing.
1622. FLETCHER, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3. To maund on the PAD.
1625. JONSON, The Staple of News, ii.
| P. Can. A rogue, | |
| A very canter, I sir, one that maunds | |
| Upon the PAD. |
d. 1721. PRIOR, The Thief and the Cordelier. The ’squire of the PAD and the knight of the post.
1724. E. COLES, English Dictionary, s.v.
1818. SCOTT, Rob Roy, iv. Gentlemen of the PAD, as they were then termed.
2. (old colloquial).—An easy-paced horse; an ambler. Also PAD-NAG.—B. E. (c. 1696).
1717. CIBBER, The Non-juror, i. 1. I was about buying a PAD-NAG for your sister.
1770. FOOTE, The Lame Lover, i. 1. He would not sample to break an appointment … in order to buy a PAD-NAG for a lady.
d. 1892. TENNYSON, Lady of Shalot, ii. 20. An abbot on an ambling PAD.
3. (old).—A highway robber; a foot-PAD; a tramp: also PADDER and (Scots’) PADDIST.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, p. 40 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874], s.v.
1665. R. HEAD, The English Rogue, I. v. p. 51 (1874), s.v.
1625. MASSINGER, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, ii. 1. Are they PADDERS or Abram-men that are your consorts?
1668. DRYDEN, Albumazar, Prologue, 19.
| Who, like bold PADDERS, scorn by night to prey, | |
| But rob by sunshine, in the face of day. |
1671. W. ANNAND, Mysterium Pietatis, or the Mysterie of Godlinesse, 85. A PADDIST, or High-way-man, attempting to spoil a preacher, ordering him to stand, and asking What he was, was answer’d I am a servant of the Lord Jesus.
1672. SHADWELL, Epsom Wells, III. [Wks. (1720), ii. 245]. Bribes received from PADS, pick-pockets, and shop-lifts.
1678. BUTLER, Hudibras, III. 1.
| And spurr’d, as jockies use, to break, | |
| Or PADDERS to secure, a neck. |
1680. COTTON, The Compleat Gamester, 5. Jilts, PADS, biters, etc., … may all pass under the general appellation of rooks.
1683. CROWNE, City Politics, v. 1. Such rogues as you, who abuse your trade, and like so many PADDERS, make all people deliver their purse that ride in the road of justice.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. PAD … RUM PAD, a daring or stout Highwayman.
1699. WARD, The World Bewitch’d, 23. [Hedges] will be the Leacher’s Bawdy-house, the PADDER’S Ambuscade; … and the Farmer’s Security.
1707. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, II. iv. 22. Since the Ladder Has turn’d off many a handsom PADDER.
1712. J. SHIRLEY, The Triumph of Wit [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 37].
| The third was a PADDER, that fell to decay, | |
| Who used for to plunder upon the highway. |
1746. Poor Robin [NARES]. Mercury, What does that thief Mercury do with Venus? Why even the very same that hectors and PADDERS do with ladies of pleasure.
1781. MESSINK, The Choice of Harlequin, ‘Ye Scamps, Ye Pads, Ye Divers,’ i. Ye scamps, ye PADS, ye divers, and all upon the lay.
1818. SCOTT, The Heart of Mid-lothian, xxv. A gude fellow that has been but a twelvemonth on the lay, be he ruffler or PADDER.
1819. BYRON, Don Juan, xi. 11.
| These freeborn sounds proceeded from four PADS, | |
| In ambush laid. |
4. (old).—See quot. 1823.
1664. ETHEREGE, The Comical Revenge, i. 2. Palmer … I am grown more than half virtuous of late. I have laid the dangerous PAD now quite aside.
c. 1819. Old Song, ‘The Young Prig’ [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 83]. The cleanest angler ON THE PAD.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. PAD (the)—highway robbery, forcibly. Footpads—dismounted highwaymen. Pads—are also street-robbers.
c. 1824. P. EGAN, Boxiana, iii. 621–2. For Dick had beat the hoof UPON THE PAD.
1892. W. E. HENLEY and R. L. STEVENSON, Deacon Brodie, II. i. 23. He’s a light hand on the PAD, has Jemmy, and leaves his mark.
5. (old).—A bed: also POD. [POD = a bundle (A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew), often used as a pillow or bed.] See LETTY.
Verb. (old cant).—1. To travel on foot; to tramp: also TO PAD (PLOD, BANG, or BEAT) THE HOOF (q.v.). Fr. fendre l’ergot (= to split the spur).
1553. J. BRADFORD, Letters [Parker Society (1853), ii. 46]. Though the weather be foul and storms grow apace, yet go not ye alone, but other your brothers and sisters PAD the same path.
1598–9. SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3. Trudge, PLOD, away, O’ THE HOOF.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, ‘The Maunder’s Wooing.’ O Ben mort wilt thou PAD with me.
1644–55. HOWELL, Familiar Letters, I. i. 17 [1726]. The Secretary was put to BEAT THE HOOP himself, and foot it home.
1684. BUNYAN, Pilgrim’s Progress, II. A lion … came a great PADDING pace after.
1665. R. HEAD, The English Rogue, I. vi. 59. BEATING THE HOOF we overtook a Cart.
1687. T. BROWN, The Saints in an Uproar, 82 [Wks. (1730), i. 78.] We BEAT THE HOOF as pilgrims.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary, s.v. Hoof. To BEAT THE HOOF (V.) to walk much up and down, to go a-foot.
1788. E. PICKEN, Poems, 37, 85.
| Fareweel, ye wordiest pair o’ shoon, | |
| On you I’ve PADDED, late an’ soon. |
1789. G. PARKER, Life’s Painter [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 70].
| Ere they to church did PAD, | |
| To have it christen’d Joe, sir. |
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon. I must PAD like a bull or the cops will nail me.
1868. BROWNING, The Ring and the Book, II. 277. The muzzled ox … gone blind in PADDING round and round one path.
1880. SOMERVILLE, Fables, I. Two toasts, with all their trinkets gone, PADDING the streets for half-a-crown.
1883. Daily News, 22 June, 3, 2. As the child of Seven Dials walks the streets, PADDING the weary HOOF … he sees plenty of street sights.
1887. W. E. HENLEY, Villon’s Straight Tip to all Cross Coves, 2. PAD with a slang, or chuck a fag.
2. (old).—To rob on foot, or on the highway: also TO GO ON THE PAD.—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785).
1639. FORD, The Lady’s Trial, v. i.
| One | |
| Can man a quean, and cant, pick a pocket, | |
| PAD for a cloak or hat, and in the dark | |
| Pistol a straggler for a quarter-ducat. |
1685. COTTON MATHER, Discourse on Witchcraft (1689), 7. As if you or I should say: We never met with any robbers on the road, therefore there never was any PADDING there.
d. 1745. SWIFT, to Mr. Congreve [Century]. These PAD on wit’s high-road, and suits maintain, with those they rob.
ON THE PAD, phr. (common).—On the tramp.
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 462. Her husband was ON THE PAD in the country.
TO STAND PAD, verb. phr. (vagrants’).—To beg by the wayside.
1862. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, IV. 24. Beggars … who STAND PAD with fakement and pretend to hide their faces.
1875. Letter from G. A. BRINE [RIBTON-TURNER, A History of Vagrants and Vagrancy, 642], 12 April. I obtained three children … for three shilling, to ‘STAND PAD’ with me … on a Saturday.
TO PAD ROUND, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To pay great attention to a customer; to cringe; TO CRAWL.
GENTLEMEN OF THE PAD. See PADDER.
PAD IN THE STRAW, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—Anything amiss; danger concealed; ‘a snake in the grass.’
1551. STILL, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, v. 2. Ye perceive by this lingring there is a PAD IN THE STRAW.
15[?]. COLLIER, Old Ballads [HALLIWELL]. Here lyes in dede the PADDE WITHIN THE STRAWE.
