Other forms: paddocks
A paddock is a small fenced field near a stable. Turn them out in the paddock, a grass paddock, the far paddock.
It is smaller than a field and used for turning horses out, for grazing in rotation and for schooling. At a racecourse the paddock is where horses are paraded before a race, and in motor racing it is the enclosure behind the pits where the teams work. In Australia and New Zealand, paddock is the ordinary word for any fenced field, however large.
1nounpaddockA small fenced field near a stable.
“The ponies grazed quietly in the paddock behind the house.”
2nounenclosureThe enclosure where teams or horses gather at a race.
“Before the race, the jockeys walked the horses round the paddock.”
paddock is an enclosure.
Paddock is almost certainly a variant of dialect parrock, from Middle English parrok, an enclosure. Park is the same word, so a paddock is a little park.
Proto-Germanic
*parrukaz — fence; enclosure
Proto-West Germanic
*parruk — enclosure; pen for animals
Old English
pearroc
Middle English
parrok
English, today
paddock
Built from
The noun is almost certainly a variant of dialectal British parrock (“enclosure; park; croft, small field, paddock”), from Middle English parrok, parrock (“enclosed pasture, paddock; coop; feeding stall; cabin, hut”)parock, parok, paruche, from Old English pearroc, pearruc (“fence used to enclose a space; area enclosed by such a fence, enclosure”), from Proto-West Germanic parruk (“enclosure; pen for animals”), from Proto-Germanic parrukaz (“fence; enclosure”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic barō (“bar, beam; barrier”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”). Equivalent to park + -ock. a doublet of park. The verb is derived from the noun. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Farm & Countryside, Horses & Riding