wad
/wɑd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.06 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A substantial pile (normally of money).
noun
A soft plug or seal, particularly as used between the powder and pellets in a shotgun cartridge, or earlier on the charge of a muzzleloader or cannon.
verb
To crumple or crush into a compact, amorphous shape or ball.
verb
To wager.
Example Sentences
- "Our cat loves to play with a small wad of paper."
- "My first impulse was to get it[the chewing gum] into my mouth as quickly as possible, but I remembered where I was. I ran home, and on our front porch I examined my loot. The gum looked fresh. I sniffed it and it smelled all right. I licked it and waited for a while. When I did not die I crammed it into my mouth: Wrigley’s Double-Mint. When Jem came home he asked me where I got such a wad. I told him I found it."
- "With a wad of cash like that, she should not have been walking round Manhattan."
- "The campfires provide enough plain old regular visible light to show this sorry affair for what it is: a bunch of demented Boy Scouts, a jamboree without merit badges or hygiene. With the IR supered on top of the visible, she can also see vague, spectral red faces out in the shadows where her unassisted eyes would only see darkness. These new Knight Visions cost her a big wad of her Mob drug-running money. Just the kind of thing Mom had in mind when she insisted Y.T. get a part-time job."
- ""Bulleted revolver cartridges contain no wad. You are thinking of a shot-gun, sir.""
- "Once we were all sat on the ground, drinking our tea and eating a cheese wad - that was all you could get - I asked where my mate Jackson was. Nobody had any idea but as he was required in the flight office we did a search."
Etymology
Probably short for Middle English wadmal (“woolen cloth”), from Old Norse váðmál (“woolen stuff”), from váð (“cloth”) + mál (“measure”). See wadmal. Cognate with Swedish vadd (“wadding, cotton wool”), German Wat, Watte (“wad, padding, cotton wool”), Dutch lijnwaad, gewaad, watten (“cotton wool”), West Frisian waad, Old English wǣd (“garment, clothing”) (English: weed). More at weed, meal.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /wɑd/
- British English: /wɒd/