padding
Preserved but no longer current.
The light articles in the monthly magazines, of which the serial stories are the main attraction. Publishers of magazines seem to think that if they get a serial story from a popular novelist they can pack any amount of rubbish into the remaining pages. This is not so in America, as magazines like the Atlantic Monthly and the Overland Monthly show.
Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “padding” mean?
The light articles in the monthly magazines, of which the serial stories are the main attraction. Publishers of magazines seem to think that if they get a serial story from a popular novelist they can pack any amount of rubbish into the remaining pages. This is not so in America, as magazines like the Atlantic Monthly and the Overland Monthly show.
Is “padding” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.