cud

[kuhd]

See more synonyms for cud on Thesaurus.com

noun

the portion of food that a ruminant returns from the first stomach to the mouth to chew a second time.
Dialect. quid¹.

Idioms

chew one's/the cud, Informal. to meditate or ponder; ruminate.

Origin of cud

before 1000; Middle English; Old English cudu, variant of cwiodu, cwidu; akin to Old High German quiti glue, Sanskrit jatu resin, gum. See quid¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for cud

food, chew, rumen, bolus, quid

Examples from the Web for cud

Contemporary Examples of cud

I sometimes sit there chewing a phrase like a cow with cud a while before going on.
Leah Hager Cohen: How I Write
Noah Charney
September 12, 2012

Historical Examples of cud

Among these the sheep graze, the donkeys bray, and the cows chew the cud.
Welsh Fairy Tales
William Elliott Griffis
Naething ever onybody said cud gar me think different o' him!'
Heather and Snow
George MacDonald
More than ever now my father chewed the cud of his great disappointment.
The Woman Thou Gavest Me
Hall Caine
Chew you the cud of that until the hangman's coming in the morning.
The Tavern Knight
Rafael Sabatini
He had chewed the cud of his own virtue for too long a time, and it had given him a sour stomach.
Rope
Holworthy Hall

British Dictionary definitions for cud

cud

noun

partially digested food regurgitated from the first stomach of cattle and other ruminants to the mouth for a second chewing
chew the cud to reflect or think over something

Word Origin for cud

Old English cudu, from cwidu what has been chewed; related to Old Norse kvātha resin (for chewing), Old High German quiti glue, Sanskrit jatu rubber

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cud

Old English cudu "cud," earlier cwudu, common Germanic (cf. Old Norse kvaða "resin," Old High German quiti "glue," German Kitt "putty"); perhaps from PIE root *gwet- "resin, gum."

cud in Science

cud

[kŭd]

Food that has been partly digested and brought up from the first stomach to the mouth again for further chewing by ruminants, such as cattle and sheep.