Definition of "paddock" [pad•dock]

• A fenced area, usually near a stable, used chiefly for grazing horses. (noun)
• Sports An enclosure at a racetrack where the horses are assembled, saddled, and paraded before each race. (noun)
• Sports An area of an automobile racetrack where cars are prepared before a race. (noun)
• Australian A piece of fenced-in land. (noun)
• To confine in a paddock. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The paddock is set amid elms, maples, and vendors of sugary confections."
• "The tree in the paddock is so loaded down with Bramleys, the branches are bending halfway to the ground."
• "Perhaps the first land fenced was too small to be called a field; the word paddock was extended in reference as more land was fenced and field is seldom heard as a topographical term in Australia."