Subscriber login


Forgot your password?

Library card login

Other

scud1

Pronunciation: /skʌd/

Translate scud | into Italian
Definition of scud

verb (scuds, scudding, scudded)

  • 1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] move fast in a straight line because or as if driven by the wind:we lie watching the clouds scudding across the sky three small ships were scudding before a brisk breeze
  • 2 [with object] chiefly Scottish slap, beat, or spank:she scudded me across the head

noun

  • 1chiefly literary a mass of vapoury clouds or spray driven fast by the wind: the water is glassy under a scud of mist [mass noun]:the picturesque shoreline disappeared into low-cloud scud and rain
  • a driving shower of rain or snow; a gust: scuds of rain gave way to sun
  • [mass noun] the action of moving fast in a straight line when driven by the wind:the scud of the clouds before the wind
  • 2 (Scud or Scud missile) a type of long-range surface-to-surface guided missile able to be fired from a mobile launcher.
    [a code name assigned by NATO to a series of such missiles developed by the former Soviet Union]

Origin:

mid 16th century (as a verb): perhaps an alteration of the noun scut1, thus reflecting the sense 'race like a hare'

scud in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of scud in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

  |  Cite

Word of the day

kempt

/ kem(p)t /
adjective
maintained in a neat and clean condition …