spud
Americannoun
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spuds
plural
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Informal. a potato.
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a spadelike instrument, especially one with a narrow blade, as for digging up or cutting the roots of weeds.
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a chisel-like tool for removing bark.
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a pointed leg or stake for staying or supporting dredging or earth-boring machinery.
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a short pipe, as for connecting a water pipe with a meter.
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Surgery. an instrument having a dull flattened blade for removing substances or foreign bodies from certain parts of the body, as wax from the ear.
verb (used with object)
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spuds,
present (3rd person singular)
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spudded,
past participle, past
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spudding
present participle
verb phrase
noun
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an informal word for potato
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a narrow-bladed spade for cutting roots, digging up weeds, etc
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Also called: spudder. a tool, resembling a chisel, for removing bark from trees
verb
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(tr) to remove (bark) or eradicate (weeds) with a spud
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(intr) to drill the first foot of an oil-well
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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spudsimple
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spudssimple
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have spuddedperfect
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has spuddedperfect
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am spuddingprogressive
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are spuddingprogressive
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is spuddingprogressive
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have been spuddingperfect progressive
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has been spuddingperfect progressive
Past
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spuddedsimple
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had spuddedperfect
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was spuddingprogressive
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were spuddingprogressive
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had been spuddingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of spud
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English spudde “short knife”; further origin unknown
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:
By the time the teen got home, she was embracing the spud as a kind of goofball Halloween badge of honor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025
It is already the world's second biggest spud producer.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2025
Cantwell is right to defend the spud against this line of attack.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 8, 2024
But the case, like so many others, fell by the flesh of the spud.
From New York Times ● Jan. 24, 2024
He'd always say things like, "Jess, we're going to go shoot hoops just the two of us, but when we get back we'll play spud with you."
From "The Lemonade War" by Jacqueline Davies
Six weeks without rain has scorched his cauliflowers, shrivelled his spuds, and shrunk his bank balance.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
At the plants, the spuds are cut, fried, coated in seasoning and bagged while still warm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
As for “Chicken Shop Date,” the online series first began with Dimoldenberg interviewing grime artists over greasy chicken and deep fried spuds before doing the same with Hollywood celebrities.
From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2024
First, you’d remove the spuds from their plastic bag.
From National Geographic ● Aug. 17, 2023
Malachy smiles and says she brought home corned beef and a few spuds from Kathleen O’Connell’s shop.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
The first horizontal well in the Bakken was spudded by Meridian Oil in 1987, long before the current boom.
From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2013
Meanwhile, we’re drilling and just spudded on December 31st, the Lineham Creek well you see onshore Louisiana there.
From Forbes ● Feb. 21, 2012
The country's first commercial oil well was spudded in nearby Moonie.
From Reuters ● Nov. 16, 2011
Cuba, which spudded in its first oil well in 1954 and is now a small producer, brought up enough oil this year to supply its own needs for about two weeks.
From Time Magazine Archive
"I've been just 'Billie' to all Limasito since the first well was spudded in; you don't want the boys to think you're putting notions into my head, do you?"
From The Fifth Ace by George W. Gage
Understandably eager for oil, little Jordan celebrated the spudding in of Mecom's first well in the olive groves and rolling hills north of Hebron.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hugh used to trot about with him, spudding up weeds from the lawn.
From Hugh Memoirs of a Brother by Arthur Christopher Benson
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.
