wad1 (wod)

[Early mod. E. wadde; cf. D. watte = G. watte, wad, wadding, = OSw. wad, clothing, cloth, stuff, Sw. vadd, wadding, = Dan. vat, wadding, = Icel. * vadhr, in comp. vad māl, a woolen stuff, wadmal (see wadmal ); akin to MD. waede, wae ye = MLG. wade, G. watte, a large fishing-net, = Icel. vadhr, a fishing-net, and to AS. wæd, etc., clothing, weed: see weed2. Hence ( Sp. huata ) = It. ovata (ML. wadd a ) = Ru . vat a, wad, wadding. The relations of the forms are involved; E. wad is perhaps in part short for the obs. wadmal.] 1. A small bunch or wisp of rags, hay, hair, wool, or other fibrous material, used for stuffing, for le ening the shock of hard bodies against each other, or for packing. A wispe of rushes, or a clod of land, Or any wadde of hay that's next to hand, They'l steale. John Taylor , Works (1630). ( Nares .) Know you yonder lumpe of melancholy, Yonder bundle of sighes, yonder wad of groanes? Heywood, Fair Maid of the Exchange (Works, ed. 1874, (II. 17). 2. Specifically, something, as a piece of cloth, paper, or leather, used to hold the powder or bullet, or both, in place in a gun or cartridge. For ordinary double or single-barreled shot-guns, wads are disks of felt, leather, or pasteboard cut by machinery or by a hand-tool, often indented to allow pa age of air in ramming home, and sometimes specially treated with a composition which helps to keep the barrels from fouling. See cut under shot -cartridge. Wads are punched out of sheets of various materials by cutters fixed in a pre . Those most commonly used are made of felts, cardboard, or jute. W. W. Greener, The Gun, p. 300. 3. In ceram., a small piece of finer clay used to cover the body of an inferior material in some varieties of earthenware; especially, the piece doubled over the edge of a ve el. - Junk wad. See junk - wad. - Selvagee-wad. Same as gromet -wad. wad1 (wod), v. t.; pret. and pp. wadded, ppr. wadding. [= G. watten (cf. freq. G. wattiren = D. watteren = Dan. vattere ), wad; from the noun.] 1. To form into a wad or into wadding; pre together into a ma , as fibrous material. - 2. To line with wadding, as a garment, to give more roundne or fullne to the figure, keep out the cold, render soft, or protect in any way. A parcel of Superannuated Debauchees, huddled up in Cloaks, Frize Coats and Wadded Gowns. Quoted in Ashton's Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, [I. 300. The quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity. George Eliot , Middle march, xx. 3. To pad; stuff; fill out with or as with wad ster. Willie was a wabster gude, Could stown a clew wi' ony body. Burns , Willie Wastle. wacapou (wak'a-pö), n. A leguminous tree, Andira Aubletii , of French Guiana. It furnishes a brownish straight-grained wood, scarcely sound enough for architectural purposes, but suitable for many domestic uses. A similar but inferior wood is called wacapou gris. wacchet, waccheret. Old spellings of watch, watcher.