GADDING
GAD
gallivant, gad, jazz around
(verb) wander aimlessly in search of pleasure
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Verb
gadding
present participle of gad
Noun
gadding (plural gaddings)
The act of one who gads, or moves about frivolously.
Source: Wiktionary
Gad"ding, a. & n.
Definition: Going about much, needlessly or without purpose.
Envy is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets. Bacon.
The good nuns would check her gadding tongue. Tennyson.
Gadding car, in quarrying, a car which carries a drilling machine so
arranged as to drill a line of holes.
GAD
Gad, n. Etym: [OE. gad, Icel. gaddr goad, sting; akin to Sw. gadd
sting, Goth. gazds, G. gerte switch. See Yard a measure.]
1. The point of a spear, or an arrowhead.
2. A pointed or wedge-shaped instrument of metal, as a steel wedge
used in mining, etc.
I will go get a leaf of brass, And with a gad of steel will write
these words. Shak.
3. A sharp-pointed rod; a goad.
4. A spike on a gauntlet; a gadling. Fairholt.
5. A wedge-shaped billet of iron or steel. [Obs.]
Flemish steel . . . some in bars and some in gads. Moxon.
6. A rod or stick, as a fishing rod, a measuring rod, or a rod used
to drive cattle with. [Prov. Eng. Local, U.S.] Halliwell. Bartlett.
Upon the gad, upon the spur of the moment; hastily. [Obs.] "All this
done upon the gad!" Shak.
Gad, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Gadded; p. pr. & vb. n. Gadding.] Etym:
[Prob. fr. gad, n., and orig. meaning to drive about.]
Definition: To walk about; to rove or go about, without purpose; hence, to
run wild; to be uncontrolled. "The gadding vine." Milton.
Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way Jer. ii. 36.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition