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:
Despite Lauer’s bounce-back start Wednesday, and a consistent run with the Dodgers other than a dud against the Cubs at Wrigley Field last week, Lauer’s future with this team down the stretch isn’t entirely clear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
To no one’s surprise, it was a dud.
From Salon ● Aug. 1, 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
According to the newspaper, SmartMart’s grand opening was a big old dud.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
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
Large numbers of the shells fired were duds; they failed to detonate.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
