paddocks

Noun

paddock (plural paddocks)

1. (also, figuratively) A small enclosure or field of grassland, especially one used to exercise or graze horses or other animals.
   • Upon this information, they instantly passed through the hall once more, and ran across the lawn after their father, who was deliberately pursuing his way towards a small wood on one side of the paddock.1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 126
2. (broadly) An enclosure next to a racecourse where horses are paraded and mounted before a race and unsaddled after a race.
   • We left the carriage, bought programmes, and walked across the infield and then across the smooth thick turf of the course to the paddock. […] The paddock was fairly well filled with people and they were walking the horses around in a ring under the trees behind the grand stand.1929 May–October, Ernest Hemingway, chapter 20, in A Farewell to Arms, 1st British edition, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1929, →OCLC, book II, page 138
3. (broadly) An area at a racing circuit where the racing vehicles are parked and worked on before and between races.
4. (broadly, slang) A field on which a game is played; a playing field.
5. (Australia, New Zealand, broadly) A field of grassland of any size, either enclosed by fences or delimited by geographical boundaries, especially a large area for keeping cattle or sheep.
6. (Australia, New Zealand, broadly) A place in a superficial deposit where ore or washdirt (“earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing”) is excavated; also, a place for storing ore, washdirt, etc.

See all 15 meanings of paddock