wad — ONAD · Shobdo

wad /wäd, wɑd

▸ noun

1 a lump or bundle of a soft material, used for padding, stuffing, or wiping:

a wad of cotton.

▪ a portion of chewing gum, or of tobacco or a narcotic when used for chewing:

I made a wad out of the young leaves and twigs and tried to masticate slowly.

▪ mainly historical a disk of felt or another material used to keep powder or shot in place in a gun barrel.

2 a bundle of paper, banknotes, or documents:

a thick wad of index cards.

▪ informal a large amount of something, especially money:

she was working on TV and had wads of money.

▸ verb

(wads, wadding, wadded)

[with object]

1 compress (a soft material) into a lump or mass:

wad the strips over and over so that they ball up

I removed the name tag and promptly wadded it up.

2 line or stuff with wadding:

the quilts are wadded with thick natural cotton.

▪ stop up (an aperture or a gun barrel) with a bundle or lump of soft material.

– PHRASES
shoot one's wad

1 vulgar slang
(of a man) ejaculate.

2 informal
do all that one can.

[originally, to fire one's gun with only the wad for a projectile when one's ammunition is exhausted.]

– ORIGIN mid 16th century (denoting wadding): perhaps related to Dutch watten, French ouate ‘padding, cotton wool’.