noun
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a person or thing that proves ineffectual or a failure
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a shell, etc, that fails to explode
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old-fashioned (plural) clothes or other personal belongings
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dud
1815–25; special use of dud, singular of duds
Explanation
Something that doesn't work the way it's supposed to is a dud. A bomb or firework that doesn't explode is one kind of dud. A bad blind date is another kind. When a bomb fails to explode, it's a dud. A long-planned surprise party that fails miserably when the guest of honor doesn't show up is another kind of dud. You can also refer to a person as a dud, if they're an utter failure or a complete flop: "The lead actor was a total dud. He couldn't really sing or dance and he seemed nervous." In the 1800s, a dud was "a person in ragged clothing," from dudde, "cloak or mantle."
Vocabulary lists containing dud
Back-Words: Palindromes
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Essential Three-Letter Words, Part 3
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Scrabble: Palindrome Words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Arellano: Will the Third Bass-Raman debate be a classic — or a dud?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
But no, we can confidently report that the Great American State Fair is a big ol’ dud.
From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2026
It’s the first day of SpaceX trading, and Wall Street has high hopes it’ll provide a lot more excitement than that dud of a World Cup opener.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 12, 2026
With the hotly anticipated SpaceX offering imminent, it’s apt that a rare dud in Elon Musk’s sprawling business empire is called The Boring Company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
You’re handsome! devil Thank you very much. dud: The universe!
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
Costume designer Maya Edmond dresses Big Ant thematically: white tees when he’s trying to be good, black duds when his demons are winning and comic book-y jailbird stripes during his pivotal teenage arrest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
With years of data showing that people will rent and watch just about anything, Netflix was free to make a home for all the bombs and duds that it previously offered via snail mail.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
Splurging money on last-minute loans who, surprisingly, turn out to be duds.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
The truly remarkable thing about Harden’s duds is that they didn’t even come close to registering as the worst postseason outings of his career.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
His sharp duds weren’t the only thing that set Johnny Cakes apart from the other fishermen at the docks.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
