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:
I don’t do first-date hikes because I don’t like feeling trapped if the guy’s a dud.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 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
After all, who wants to share a meal and spend hours with someone who might turn out to be a dud?
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
‘I love Lucifer’ it was in those days. dud: What was it like up in heaven? devil Heh heh.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
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
Roy’s campaign sent out 180 communications, records show, the bulk of them ads for Instagram and Facebook, where her team said they saw instantly which stories resonated with likely voters and which were duds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Lucasfilm was hit-and-miss under Kennedy—for every Star Wars success story like The Force Awakens, there were duds like Solo, a spinoff that focuses on original trilogy icon Han Solo.
From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026
The Brisbane Courier Mail claimed England are "not even trying anymore", the Advertiser from Adelaide labelled the tourists "rub a dub duds" and Sydney's Daily Telegraph carried the headline "Surfed and Turfed".
From BBC ● Dec. 13, 2025
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
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.
