A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support, such as a throw pillow or a thin, flat pad used on hard chairs and sometimes toilet seats.

Something acting as a pad or pillow to absorb shock or impact, such as a pad for cutting gold leaf, a mass of steam in a steam engine, the lip around a table in cue sports, a pillow for making bone lace, an engraver's pad, the rubber of an electrical machine, or a pad supporting a woman's hair.

(figurative) A sufficient quantity of an intangible object (like points or minutes) to allow for some of those points, for example, to be lost without hurting one's chances for successfully completing an objective, or it can also refer to money kept in reserve in the field of finance.

(historical) The dancer in the cushion dance who currently holds the cushion, or the dance itself.

To furnish with cushions.

To seat or place on, or as on a cushion.

To absorb or deaden the impact of.

To conceal or cover up, as under a cushion.