1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, xxv. A gude fellow that has been but a twelvemonth on the lag, be he ruffler or padder.
1819. Byron, Don Juan, ii. 11. These freeborn sounds proceeded from four pads in ambush laid.
4. (old).—See quot. 1823.
1664. Etheredge, 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. Song of the Young Prig [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 83]. The cleanest angler on the pad.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Pad (the)—highway robbery, forcibly. Foot-*pads—dismounted highwaymen. Pads—are also street-robbers.
c.1824. Egan, Boxiana, iii. 621-2. For Dick had beat the hoof upon the pad.
1892. Henley and 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 (Dict. Cant. 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).
1598-9. Shakspeare, 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, Letters, i. i. 17 [1726]. The Secretary was put to beat the hoop himself, and foot it home.
d.1659. Bradford, Letters [Parker Soc. (1858), ii. 46]. Though the weather be foul . . . yet go not ye alone . . . your brothers and sisters pad the same path.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, ii. A lion . . . came a great padding pace after.
1665. Head, Eng. Rogue, i. vi. 59. Beating the hoof we overtook a Cart.
1687. Brown, Saints in Up., 82 [Wks. (1730), i. 78.] We beat the hoof as pilgrims.
1748. Dyche, Dict., s.v. Hoof. To beat the hoof (V.) to walk much up and down, to go a-foot.
1788. Picken, Poems, 37, 85. Fare-*weel, ye wordiest pair o' shoon, On you I've padded, late an' soon.
1789. Parker, Life's Painter [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 69]. Ere they to church did pad, To have it christen'd Joe, sir.
1859. Matsell, Vocab. I must pad like a bull or the cops will nail me.
1868. Browning, Ring and 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. Henley, Fillon's Straight Tip, 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, Lady's Trial, v. i. One can . . . 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. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. i. 462. Her husband was on the pad in the country.
