padding
noun/ˈpædɪŋ/
Etymology From pad + -ing.
7 senses
1
Soft filling material used in cushions etc.
2
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Extra characters such as spaces added to a record to fill it out to a fixed length.
3
Computing, Cryptography, Engineering, Government, Mathematics, Military, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Politics, Sciences, War Extraneous text added to a message for the purpose of concealing its beginning, ending, or length.
4
Anything of little value used to fill up space.
- That magazine is mostly advertisements; the rest is padding.
- But to my intense surprise, on getting down early the next morning, and eagerly opening the newspapers, there was not a word about the arrest! There was a column of mere padding about “The Styles Poisoning Case,” but nothing further. It was rather inexplicable, but I supposed that, for some reason or other, Japp wished to keep it out of the papers.1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 135:
5
The process of mordanting a fabric.
6
A diaper.
7
Obsolete Robbing on a highway.
- Derived terms
- laughter padding, padding-ken, stat padding, underpadding