padfoot, n.1
Inflections:
Plural padfoots, padfeet.
Forms:
17– padfoot; Eng. regional 18 padfoit, 18– padfooit (Yorks.). (Show Less)
Origin: Perhaps formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: pad n.1, foot n. and int.
Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps < pad n.1 + foot n. and int.
Chiefly Eng. regional (north.).
Also with capital initial. A large dog, variously said to be a ghost, spirit, or monster, supposed to guard graves and to terrify travellers. Cf. barghest n.
1736 F. Drake Eboracum i. ii. 58
The Padfoot of Pontfrete, and the Barguest of York.
1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven
(ed. 2)
Pad-foot, a Ghost.
1865 S. Baring-Gould Bk. Were-wolves viii. 106
The Church-dog, bar-ghast, pad-foit, wash-hound, or by whatever name the animal supposed to haunt a churchyard is designated.
1883 T. Lees Easther's Gloss. Dial. Almondbury & Huddersfield
Padfoot,..described as being something like a large sheep, or dog; sometimes to have rattled a chain, and been accustomed to accompany persons on their night walks, much as a dog might; keeping by their side, and making a soft noise with its feet—pad, pad, pad—whence its name. It had large eyes as big as ‘tea-plates’.
1972 M. J. Petry Herne Hunter vii. 85
In Staffordshire and the north generally, the padfoots guard the graves of those who have died by violence, as do the barguests of the west country.
1998 M. Warner No Go Bogeyman
(2000)
10
Bogeys can be black dogs, like the Padfoot feared in the North Country or the Skriker of Yorkshire and Lancashire.
1736—1998(Hide quotations)