It depends on context.
No, in most formal contexts you should not use this word.
No, you should not use this word even in informal contexts outside the US. It is an Americanism (although it appears to a lesser extent in other countries).
Yes, it's fine in certain informal contexts. It's particularly used in the discussion of sports, as in the page you link to. It's easily understood and surprisingly common in this context.
And I think you've got the meaning right. Even with well-established words, meaning tends to be fairly flexible. With a word like this that is only accepted in some informal contexts, meaning is more flexible still. It's not so much a matter of "right" and "wrong", but "Did they communicate successfully?" And since you understood, it seems that they did!
And no, don't say *winninger. It's understandable (at least in certain contexts), and you can say it if you really want to, but even people who say winningest don't say winninger.
Why can't I just use the word 'walk' instead?
Actually, you can use "walk" instead, and for everyday usage, you should. This definition of "pad" is technically valid, but it is specialized and rarely used.
How does the word pad differ from walk? What difference does it make?
When I do see "pad" used this way, it is almost always referring to an animal, not a human. And not just any animal, but one with soft contact surfaces (i.e. pads) on the feet, such as dogs or bears. You would never use "pad" to describe the movement of a horse or chicken.
When used for a human, "pad" refers to a quiet and/or stealthy walk, not just any walk.
Does the word fit in my sample sentences?
Not quite. If you do find a case where it makes sense to use pad, imagine how the sentence would be written with "walk" and then use the same form of "pad" in instead.
* People are walking the street
is incorrect because it is missing a preposition. Instead, you might say
People are walking/padding down the street
Best Answer
Slang is not inherently offensive. The term usually denotes non-standard linguistic innovations restricted to a particular speech community and used to mark one’s membership in that community.
Typically slang is the speech of young people—words and phrases which mark the user as ‘cool’ or ‘hip’, familiar with the currently most fashionable artistic and social trends. But every in-group has its own slang. In the grain-processing industry, for example, warehouse receipts and shipping certificates are both referred to colloquially as ‘tickets’.
Slang should be distinguished from jargon, which is the formal usages or terms of art peculiar to a particular professional group.
Noob or n00b (formed after boob, in the sense ‘stupid and unsophisticated person’) was coined in the direct-dial bulletin-board communities which preceded internet forums. As SF. says, it is deliberately derogatory, employed to distinguish novice participants from the established senior users, masters of the medium. But it was balanced by a corresponding non-derogatory slang term, l337 (= leet, ‘elite’), for the established users.