Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Scot.) a highwayman.

1671		Annand Mysterium Pietatis 85: A paddist or highwayman, attempting to spoil a preacher, ordering him to stand [F&H].
1825		Jamieson Etymological Dict. of Scottish Lang. 185/1: paddist, s. A foot-pad, one who robs on foot [...] This, I suspect, originally denoted a highwayman of whateverdescription.

a list of information useful to beggars, e.g. of friendly individuals (such as alms-givers or criminal accomplices), characters of local police, etc.

1852

Kendal Mercury 24 Jan. 6/1: The ‘pad book’ or beggar’s directory. This is a record [...] of the names of the most benevolent individuals in the neighbourhood — the names and addresses of police [...] the residences of ‘fences’ and the keepers of ‘sweating cribs’.

a horse thief.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

a horse.

1675		J. Crowne Country Wit III iii: Horses? my feet are my pad-nags.
1699		‘The Old Mans wish’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy I 16: An easie Pad-Nag to ride out a Mile.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 23 91/2: The horse and the pad-nag are as good as ever.

to travel around.

1882

Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 10: The two crocuses are gadding the pad to fence their gammy stuff. / The two quacks are on their beat to sell their spurious medicines.

(UK Und.) to go out to commit a robbery.

1711		R. L’Estrange Present from the October-Club 25: A Knot of Fellows out upon the Pad, / Took ev’ry Penny that a Trav’ler had.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Pad [...] to go out upon the pad, to go out in order to commit a robbery.

(Aus.) to live as a tramp, to go on the tramp.

1910

G.B. Lancaster Jim of the Ranges in DSUE (1984).

1. going out to commit a robbery, usu. on the highway.

1675		Head Art of Wheedling 205: When he intends to go on the Pad, then Inns some time before are the chief places whither he resorts, to get information.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Goes upon the Pad, or a Padding, c. Robbs upon the High-way.
1722		J. Carrick Account of Robberies 7: Smith and Campbell having been out on the Pad by themselves, quarrelled about dividing the Spoil.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c 365: She marry’d one Humphry Jackson, a Butcher, who was taught to leave off his Trade and go upon the Pad.
1750		Ordinary of Newgate Account 26 Mar. 28/2: He was known by the Name of Capt. Flash, [...] and making a better Appearance than his Brethren of the Whip, generally speaking, did; and no Wonder, because for these two Years past he has been upon the Pad, and as active as any of them all, about the Town, and Neighbourhood of Islington.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
c.1790		‘Luke Caffrey’s Ghost’ in Chap Book Songs 4: Oh! she was my own heart’s delight, / For her on the padroul I scamper’d.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 101: Only nine months on the pad, and to be up for Scragging!
1870		Wkly Caucasian (Lexington, MS) 28 may 2/2: Fletcher ‘Melish’ on the pad again. The mail-stage robbed [...] on Thursday.

2. living as a tramp.

1626		Jonson Staple of News II i: A very canter, I, sir, one that maunds Upon the pad.
1788		J. O’Keeffe Prisoner at Large 29: I take the road [...] I go on the pad! Oh Lord!
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor (1968) I 416/2: Her husband was on the pad in the country .
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 6: On the Pad - On the streets.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Oct. 13/2: Thus we set across the ranges grim, like patriots long banished, / And we humped the lonely road to Sydney city ‘on our pad.’.

to beg at the roadside, usu. with a small piece of paper attached to one’s jacket, declaring ‘I am hungry’; also displaying deformities or handicaps.

1842		Edinburgh Rev. July 485: Whenever cadgers stand or sit, either in towns or by the roadside, to beg, they call it sitting or standing pad ; and this often proves a very profitable method. Some of them affect blindness : whilst others represent themselves as unable to follow any employment, in consequence of being subject to fits.
1850		Freeman’s Jrnl 16 Feb. 4/5: This is called standing pad with a fakement. It is a wet weather dodge, and isn’t so good as screeving.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 93: SITTING PAD, sitting on the pavement in a begging position. [Ibid.] 101: ‘to stand pad’, to beg on the curb with a small piece of paper pinned on the breast.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 24: Ashamed Beggars, or those who ‘stand pad with a fakement’ (remain stationary, holding a written placard), and pretend to hide their faces. [Ibid.] 425/1: Many white beggars, fortunate enough to possess a flattish or turned-up nose, dyed themselves black and ‘stood pad’ as real Africans.
1875		G.A. Brine letter Apr. 12 in Ribton-Turner (1887) n.p.: I obtained three children [...] to ‘stand pad’ with me from seven o’clock until twelve p.m. on a Saturday.
1882		Dundee Courier 20 Oct. 7/5: In one of the main streets I stood ‘pad’ with my hat off.
1886		W. Newton Secrets of Tramp Life Revealed 20: The next is a game or ‘Graft,’ worked by cripples and blind people. They call it ‘Standing Pad’.
1909		W.H. Davies Beggars 214: I have seen an exceptional navvy that had the impudence to stand pad in a crowded market-place.