Synonyms

duds

American

[duhdz] / dʌdz /

plural noun

Informal.

clothes, especially a suit of clothes.
belongings in general.

Etymology

Origin of duds

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

Explanation

Your duds are your clothes. Your grandmother might hand you a hundred dollar bill at the mall and say, "Go buy yourself some new duds." The noun duds is an informal, slang term for "clothing." You can pack your duds in a suitcase before a vacation or arrange your duds by color in your closet. Though experts aren't sure where the word duds came from originally, they know that it was dudde in the 1300s, which meant "cloak or mantle," and later came to be duddes and to mean "ragged clothing."

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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.

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

The United States has a sophisticated testing system that doesn’t require setting off explosions, and when it comes to deterrence, nobody in the world assumes that America’s arsenal is full of duds.

From Salon • Nov. 2, 2025

The latter part of that post referred to the team’s second set of alternate duds: the Super Chargers uniforms.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 15, 2025

Some people have a sixth sense, and some are duds at it.

From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023