dud

[ duhd ]

noun

1. Informal. a device, person, or enterprise that proves to be a failure.

   Synonyms: flop, bomb, fizzle, debacle, fiasco

2. a shell or missile that fails to explode after being fired.

dud

/ dʌd /

noun

1. a person or thing that proves ineffectual or a failure
2. a shell, etc, that fails to explode
3. old-fashioned.
   plural clothes or other personal belongings

adjective

1. failing in its purpose or function

   a dud cheque

Word History and Origins

Origin of dud¹

1815–25; special use of dud, singular of duds

Word History and Origins

Origin of dud¹

C15 (in the sense: an article of clothing, a thing, used disparagingly): of unknown origin

Example Sentences

Financials have been a dud this year, but health care stocks are well off their March lows.

From Fortune

The idea is that new small-molecule antiviral drugs could fill these “druggable pockets” so that, once the coronavirus has first entered a patient’s body, it becomes a non-infectious dud that cannot spread.

From Fortune

Goldman Sachs, for one, had warned back in July that the month of August is historically a low-volume dud.

From Fortune

We also miss many of the lesser duds, the somewhat duds, and the turned-out-to-be-duds-in-the-end, all of which would be informative but are now lost.

From Nautilus

We don’t witness the quadrillions of experiments that were absolute duds along the 4 billion year pathway to now.

From Nautilus

His clothing line that his friend described as “upscale and urban” was a dud.

From The Daily Beast

The trade in empty bottles should be as eyebrow-raising as the old Soviet dud-bulb biz.

From The Daily Beast

The Hollywood Reporter said the film was a dud, but Holmes plays neatly against type.

From The Daily Beast

She turns in dud stories, misses deadlines, and is prone to occasionally sleeping with her young, struggling musician sources.

From The Daily Beast

The prank itself seems meaningless, and the reaction was un-extraordinary: all in all, a dud.

From The Daily Beast

While they were laughing, along came Dud the gum hunter, bearing a chicken with him.

From Project Gutenberg

I wonder if our friend Dud isn't just giving us a wrong steer, or is this what he meant we should find?

From Project Gutenberg

I for one am anxious to try that trout brook old Dud told us of.

From Project Gutenberg

He then bade Mary a "Dud by" in bad English, and set off in a run in a northern direction for the purpose of joining the whites.

From Project Gutenberg

These seemed to flit through the air, and always landed with a soft-sounding "phutt" very like a dud.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• debacle
• flop