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Glite Dictionary
to pad out

to pad out

1 6.5
To add extra not needed words or details to make a text longer
  • phrasal verb
  • /pæd aʊt/
  • Informal
translation icon : inflar
  • The teacher advised us not to pad out our essays with unnecessary information.

Examples

  • Random facts to pad out the end of a show.

    No Such Thing (2002)

  • You know, I've said it all in that paragraph and you know, I, I could maybe pad it out to a page.

  • I can do a few tricks: pad it out with more stock footage, add establishing shots...

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Now, I might have padded out your CV a bit.

    Cruella (2021)

  • You're getting at what I see in a good few games too, lots of filler content that just pads out the game.

    Blog text (8)

  • The young philosopher that James cites wrote his dissertation in only a few weeks, although he needed another year to "pad it out" with scholarly apparatus.

    Academic text (1990)

  • To meet the page requirement, I had to pad out my report with extra examples.

  • They decided to pad out the film with long dialogue scenes that added nothing to the plot.

Synonyms

to pad
vsto pad out
19 6.5

To add extra, unnecessary details to make something seem bigger or better

adds extra material mainly to increase length or overall fullness
to fill out
vsto pad out
14 2.8

To become or make something fuller by adding more

adds extra material mainly as needless filler to lengthen rather than complete
to extend
vsto pad out
11 5.1

To make food or a dish go further by adding cheap ingredients

adds unnecessary material mainly to lengthen or make content fuller not to stretch supply
to overstuff
vsto pad out
3 4.6

To put too much into something so it cannot close or is too full

adds extra material to extend length or fullness without necessarily overfilling capacity
to overelaborate
vsto pad out
8.1

To add too much detail and make something more complicated than needed

adds extra material simply to lengthen or fill space rather than to complicate

Antonyms

to reduce
∞ 1.6

To make something smaller in amount, size, or number

to thin out
  • Informal
5 3.5

Remove some people or things so the rest are more spread out

How Exaggerated

to exaggerate
258 3.1
to pad out
  • Informal
1 6.5
to embellish
19 6.1

Surface Forms

pad out infinitive
padded out past
padded out past participle
padding out present participle
pads out third person singular

Morphology

pad + out

The meaning 'to add unnecessary or extra material to make something longer' is directly derivable from 'pad' (to add extra material) combined with the particle 'out' that completes or extends the action. This verb+particle composition is a common and predictable English pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Pad out comes from the image of stuffing soft pad material into something so it bulges out, like adding extra stuffing to a pillow to make it fuller. That's why it means 'to add extra or unnecessary material to make something longer or fuller'.