dud

[duhd]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR dud ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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

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

Origin of dud

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

Synonyms for dud

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR dud ON THESAURUS.COM

1. fiasco, debacle, fizzle, miscarriage.

duds

[duhdz]

plural noun Informal.

clothes, especially a suit of clothes.

belongings in general.

Origin of duds

1275–1325; Middle English dudde; perhaps akin to Low German dudel coarse sackcloth

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for dud

flop, debacle, lemon, loser, bust, bummer, bomb, washout

Examples from the Web for dud

Contemporary Examples of dud

His clothing line that his friend described as “upscale and urban” was a dud.
Alleged Cop Killer’s Blood-Soaked Screenplay
M.L. Nestel
December 24, 2014
The Hollywood Reporter said the film was a dud, but Holmes plays neatly against type.
How Can Katie Holmes Escape Tom Cruise—and ‘Dawson’s Creek’?
Tim Teeman
October 30, 2014
She turns in dud stories, misses deadlines, and is prone to occasionally sleeping with her young, struggling musician sources.
Toni Collette on ‘The Realistic Joneses,’‘Lucky Them,’ and Crying in ‘The Sixth Sense’
Melissa Leon
June 1, 2014
The prank itself seems meaningless, and the reaction was un-extraordinary: all in all, a dud.
An Analysis of Vitalii Sediuk’s Pranks (He’s the Guy Who Touched Brad Pitt)
Amy Zimmerman
May 29, 2014
Reviews seemed to range a short spectrum between turnip (a dud, in the French parlance) and not-a-complete-turnip.
We Watch the DSK Sex Romp So You Don’t Have To
Tracy McNicoll
May 20, 2014

Historical Examples of dud

For a time it seemed as though Brent's bombshell had been a dud.
Ten From Infinity
Paul W. Fairman
Let's get busy—we're altogether too close to that dud there to suit me.
The Skylark of Space
Edward Elmer Smith and Lee Hawkins Garby
But to Dud this thrilling adventure left no pleasant memories.
Killykinick
Mary T. Waggaman
The motor boat Jim and Dud had hired for the season was stove in upon the rocks.
Killykinick
Mary T. Waggaman
It was Dud who had been swept over into those foaming, seething depths.
Killykinick
Mary T. Waggaman

British Dictionary definitions for dud

dud

noun

a person or thing that proves ineffectual or a failure

a shell, etc, that fails to explode

(plural) old-fashioned clothes or other personal belongings

adjective

failing in its purpose or functiona dud cheque

Word Origin for dud

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

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 dud

c.1825, "person in ragged clothing," from duds (q.v.). Sense extended by 1897 to "counterfeit thing," and 1908 to "useless, inefficient person or thing." This led naturally in World War I to "shell which fails to explode," and thence to "expensive failure."

duds

c.1300, dudde "cloak, mantle," later in plural, "ragged clothing" (1560s), of uncertain origin.