...padding and thrumming...

I hate the verb “thrummed” as much as I hate the verb “padded”; for reasons that are not completely clear to me. Padded is a useful enough word, no synonym quite says it with equivalency. Thrummed is precise and descriptive, both of which are excellent attributes for a word. But padding and thrumming, those words put me on edge. Why? Anyway, maybe I should use them in a science fiction short story to set the tone, something along the lines of:

...the freaky little visitor padded in stockinged feet across the gleaming hardwood floor and settled into a sofa on the far side of the room next to...

...the complex mechanism which began to thrum at high and low frequencies simultaneously, somewhat like the polyphonic overtone singing of monks, but to what purpose?

Caption: The Alien Looked Deeply Into My Eyes

by Annmarie Throckmorton, 2015.