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:
For those of us who remember the bicentennial, the semiquincentennial is a complete and utter dud.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 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
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
The twenty-third string was a dud, costing us one minute.
From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green
He understands how to use his innate magnetism to charm his way through even the silliest scripts, occasionally creating a dissonance between the film and his performances that makes even the duds memorable.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026
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
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
As flying opened up to the masses and air travel became more routine than adventurous, a downgrade in duds followed—mimicking broader shifts in fashions but also a downgrade in the experience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
Some people have a sixth sense, and some are duds at it.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
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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.
