English▸ noun a small field or enclosure where horses are kept or exercised.
▪ an enclosure adjoining a racecourse or track where horses or cars are gathered and displayed before a race:
I went across the course to see the horses in the paddock.
▪ Australian and New Zealand English a field or plot of land enclosed by fencing or defined by natural boundaries:
the sheep have returned to their previously grazed paddocks.
– ORIGIN mid 16th century: probably a variant of dialect parrock, cognate with Dutch perk ‘flowerbed’, park ‘park’, and German Pferch ‘pen, sheepfold’, of unknown ultimate origin.