suds

[suhdz]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR suds ON THESAURUS.COM

noun (used with a plural verb)

soapy water.

foam; lather.

Slang. beer.

verb (used with object)

to wash with soap or detergent (often followed by out): to suds out a pair of socks.

Origin of suds

1540–50; 1900–05 for def 3; perhaps < Middle Dutch sudse puddle, marsh; akin to sodden

Related formssuds·a·ble, adjectivenon·suds·ing, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for suds

beer, foam, soap, lather

Examples from the Web for suds

Contemporary Examples of suds

With luck, once the matches begin, the tensions will subside with the suds on a cold Budweiser.
Rio Buildings’ Collapse New Sign of World Cup Headache for Brazil
Mac Margolis
January 28, 2012

Historical Examples of suds

Not until she was elbow deep in suds did she recall her dreams about the octopus.
Weak on Square Roots
Russell Burton
Azuba wiped the suds from her wet hand and arm upon her apron.
Cap'n Dan's Daughter
Joseph C. Lincoln
He splashed and built up a mountain of suds, then wallowed in them.
A Yankee Flier Over Berlin
Al Avery
Then wash them, in the second suds, turning them wrong side out.
A Treatise on Domestic Economy
Catherine Esther Beecher
Lastly, wash the flannels, in suds as hot as the hand can bear.
A Treatise on Domestic Economy
Catherine Esther Beecher

British Dictionary definitions for suds

suds

pl n

the bubbles on the surface of water in which soap, detergents, etc, have been dissolved; lather

soapy water

slang, mainly US and Canadian beer or the bubbles floating on it

Derived Formssudsy, adjective

Word Origin for suds

C16: probably from Middle Dutch sudse marsh; related to Middle Low German sudde swamp; see seethe

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for suds

1540s, "dregs, leavings, muck," especially in East Anglia, "ooze left by flood" (this may be the original sense), perhaps borrowed from Middle Dutch sudse "marsh, bog," cognate with Old English soden, past participle of seoþan (see seethe). Meaning "soapy water" dates from 1580s; slang meaning "beer" first attested 1904.