scud

See also: Scud

English

Alternative forms

• skud (dialectal sense only)

Etymology

From Middle English scud (“incrustation, scurf, scab, peel, shedding”), perhaps from Old Norse skjóta (“to shoot, push, throw off, shed”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skʌd/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌd

Adjective

scud (comparative more scud, superlative most scud)

1. (slang, Scotland) Naked.

Verb

scud (third-person singular simple present scuds, present participle scudding, simple past and past participle scudded)

1. (intransitive) To race along swiftly (especially used of clouds).
   • 1799, William Wordsworth, The Two-Part Prelude, Book I:

     When scudding on from snare to snare I plied
     My anxious visitation, hurrying on,
     Still hurrying hurrying onward ...

   • 1807, “Cadyow Castle”, in The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, volume 4, Walter Scott:

     From the thick copse the roebucks bound,
     The startled red-deer scuds the plain […]

   • 1844, Benjamin Disraeli, chapter XVI, in Coningsby, or the New Generation:

     The wind was high; the vast white clouds scudded over the blue heaven […]

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     I saw a rhinoceros, buffalo (a large herd), eland, quagga, and sable antelope, the most beautiful of all the bucks, not to mention many smaller varieties of game, and three ostriches which scudded away at our approach like white drift before a gale.

   • 1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter II, in The Understanding Heart:

     During the preceding afternoon a heavy North Pacific fog had blown in […] Scudding eastward from the ocean, it had crept up and over the redwood-studded crests of the Coast Range mountains, […]

2. (transitive, intransitive, nautical) To run, or be driven, before a high wind with no sails set.
3. (Northumbria) To hit or slap.
4. (Northumbria) To speed.
5. (Northumbria) To skim flat stones so they skip along the water.

Derived terms

• scudding sail

Translations

to race along swiftly

• Bulgarian: нося се (nosja se)
• Czech: hnát se impf, letět (cs) impf, uhánět (cs) impf
• Finnish: kiitää (fi)
• Ukrainian: гнатися (hnatysja), мчати (mčaty), нестися (nestysja)

to run before high wind

References

• Bill Griffiths, editor (2004), “scud”, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Northumbria University Press, →ISBN.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “scud”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Noun

scud (countable and uncountable, plural scuds)

1. The act of scudding.
2. Clouds or rain driven by the wind.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     But high above the flying scud and dark-rolling clouds, there floated a little isle of sunlight, from which beamed forth an angel's face […]

3. (uncountable) A loose formation of small ragged cloud fragments (or fog) not attached to a larger higher cloud layer.
   • 2004, US National Weather Service Glossary:

     Small, ragged, low cloud fragments that are unattached to a larger cloud base and often seen with and behind cold fronts and thunderstorm gust fronts. Such clouds generally are associated with cool moist air, such as thunderstorm outflow.

4. A gust of wind.
5. (Bristol) A scab on a wound.
6. A small flight of larks, or other birds, less than a flock.
7. Any swimming amphipod.
8. A swift runner.
9. A form of garden hoe.
10. A slap; a sharp stroke.
11. (slang, uncountable, Scotland) Pornography.
12. (slang, uncountable, Scotland) The drink Irn-Bru.

    a bottle of scud

Synonyms

• (cloud): pannus or fractus

Derived terms

• scud cloud
• scud run

Translations

act of scudding

• Bulgarian: плавно движение n (plavno dviženie)
• Finnish: kiitäminen (fi), kiito (fi)
• Ukrainian: плавний рух m (plavnyj rux)

clouds or rain driven by the wind

• Finnish: vihma (fi) (rain)
• Maori: pūroro

loose formation of small ragged cloud fragments

• Finnish: sumupilvi (fi)

gust of wind

• Bulgarian: порив на вятъра (poriv na vjatǎra)
• Czech: (literary and poetic) poryv (cs) m
• Finnish: puuska (fi), tuulenpuuska (fi)
• Russian: поры́в (ru) (porýv) (ветра), шквал (ru) (škval)
• Ukrainian: порив m (poryv) (вітру), шквал m (škval)

References

• “scud”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• CDUs, UCSD, cuds

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian scudo.

Noun

scud m (plural scuzi)

1. scudo (coin)

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	scud	scudul		scuzi	scuzii
genitive-dative	scud	scudului		scuzi	scuzilor
vocative	scudule			scuzilor