puddock

plural puddocks

1. A bird, the red kite.

   One cottager in particular interests me: Henry Howsden, born to John the shepherd and his wife, Mary. I picture him as a young lad two centuries ago, hiding in the flowerbeds, chasing butterflies, pointing up at the puddocks, playing games with his siblings and Clare’s children.

   2026 July 29, Nic Wilson, “Country diary: In poet John Clare’s garden, I contemplate my ancestor who lived here too”, in The Guardian

plural puddocks

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of paddock (“contemptible or malicious person”).

   [T]here was grandfaither's siller tester in the puddock’s heart of him.

   1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Black Andie’s Tale of Tod Lapraik”, in Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 182