To finger idly or fondly; toy or trifle with the fingers, as in fondling.To dabble or play about in or as in water.To sail or swim along or about with short strokes of a paddle or oar; row or move about or along by means of a paddle.To move along by means of paddles or float-boards, as a steamboat.To move in the water by means of webbed feet, flippers, or fins, as a duck, turtle, fish, penguin, etc.To finger; play with; toy with.To propel by paddle or oar: as, to paddle a canoe.To strike with the open hand, or with some flat object, as a board; spank.n. An oar; specifically, a sort of short oar having one blade or two (one at each end), held in the hands (not resting in the rowlock) and dipped into the water with a more or less vertical motion: used especially for propelling canoes.n. The blade or broad part of an oar.n. In zoology: A fore limb constructed to answer the purpose of a fin or flipper, as that of a penguin, a whale, a sea-turtle, a plesiosaurus, or an ichthyosaurus. See cuts under Ichthyosaurus and penguin.n. In Ctenophora, one of the rows of cilia which run parallel with the longitudinal canals of the body; a ctenophore or paddle-row.n. The long flat snout of the paddle-fish.n. One of the float-boards placed on the circumference of the paddle-wheel of a steamboat.n. A panel made to fit the openings left in lock-gates and sluices for the purpose of letting the water in and out as may be required; a clough.n. An implement with a flat broad blade and a handle, resembling a paddle. n. The lump-fish, Cyclopterus lumpus. See pad-dlecock. Also cockpaidle.n. A small spade, especially a small spade used to clean a plow; a plow-staff; a paddle-staff.To throw the feet outward with a circular sweep when trotting: said of horses. Also dish.In leather manuf., to wash or color by means of a paddle. See paddle, n., 8.To pat, as the ore in a roasting-furnace, with the flat side of a paddle.n. n. A tank containing a revolving wheel or paddle for washing, tanning, or coloring skins.