English▸ verb
(pads, padding, padded)
[no object, with adverbial of direction] walk with steady steps making a soft dull sound: she padded along the corridor.
▪ [with object] travel along (a road or route) on foot:
he was padding the streets.
▸ noun [in singular] the soft dull sound of steady steps:
he heard the pad of feet.
– ORIGIN mid 16th century : from Low German padden ‘to tread, go along a path’, partly imitative.