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Paddle vs Dinghy - What's the difference?

paddle | dinghy |

As nouns the difference between paddle and dinghy

is that paddle is a two-handed, single-bladed oar used to propel a canoe or a small boat while dinghy is (nautical) a small open boat, propelled by oars or paddles, carried as a tender, lifeboat, or pleasure craft on a ship.

As a verb paddle

is to propel something through water with a paddle , oar or hands or paddle can be (british) to walk or dabble playfully in shallow water, especially at the seaside.

paddle

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) padell (1407, "small spade"), from Medieval Latin padela, perhaps from (etyl) patella "pan, plate", the diminutive of patina

Noun

(en noun)
  • A two-handed, single-bladed oar used to propel a canoe or a small boat.
  • A double-bladed oar used for kayaking.
  • Time spent on paddling.
  • We had a nice paddle this morning.
  • A slat of a paddleboat's wheel.
  • A paddlewheel.
  • A blade of a waterwheel.
  • (video games, dated) A game controller with a round wheel used to control player movement along one axis of the video screen.
  • (British) A meandering walk or dabble through shallow water, especially at the seaside.
  • A kitchen utensil shaped like a paddle and used for mixing, beating etc.
  • A bat-shaped spanking implement
  • ''The paddle practically ousted the British cane as the spanker's attribute in the independent US
  • A ping-pong bat.
  • A flat limb of an aquatic animal, adapted for swimming.
  • ''A sea turtle's paddles make it swim almost as fast as land tortoises are slow
  • In a sluice, a panel that controls the flow of water.
  • A group of inerts
  • A handheld defibrillation/cardioversion electrode
  • Derived terms
    * paddler * paddleboat * paddle board * paddlewheel * paddle steamer * paddling * dog paddle * traffic paddle
    See also
    * oar

    Verb

  • To propel something through water with a paddle, oar, hands, etc.
  • * L'Estrange
  • as the men were paddling for their lives
  • * (John Gay)
  • while paddling ducks the standing lake desire
  • * 1884 : (Mark Twain), (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Chapter IX
  • Daytimes we paddled all over the island in the canoe
  • To row a boat with less than one's full capacity.
  • To spank with a paddle.
  • To pat or stroke amorously or gently.
  • * Shakespeare
  • to be paddling palms and pinching fingers.
  • To tread upon; to trample.
  • Etymology 2

    Recorded since 1530, probably cognate with Low German paddeln "to tramp about," frequent. of padjen "to tramp, to run in short steps," from pad (also in Dutch dialects)

    Verb

  • (British) To walk or dabble playfully in shallow water, especially at the seaside.
  • To toddle
  • (archaic) To toy or caress using hands or fingers
  • dinghy

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia dinghy) (dinghies)
  • (label) A small open boat, propelled by oars or paddles, carried as a tender, lifeboat, or pleasure craft on a ship.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
  • , title= The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.}}
  • (label) An inflatable rubber life raft.
  • Synonyms
    * tender

    Derived terms

    * sailing dinghy * dinghy towing

    Verb

  • To travel by dinghy.