Wadding is soft, cushiony material used as padding or stuffing inside something. When quilters make a cozy blanket, they put a layer of wadding between the decorative top fabric and the backing to make it warm and puffy. The wadding is what gives a quilt its thickness and warmth.

Today, wadding might be made from cotton, polyester, or other materials pressed into sheets.

You'll find wadding in lots of everyday items: inside winter jackets to keep you warm, in furniture cushions, in sleeping bags, and even in some protective packaging. When you sit on a comfortable couch or wear a puffy coat, you're experiencing the soft support of wadding, even if you can't see it.

In old-fashioned firearms, people also used small amounts of wadding to hold gunpowder and bullets in place, though this meaning is less common today. The key idea stays the same: wadding fills space and provides protection or cushioning.