suds
Americannoun
-
soapy water.
-
foam; lather.
-
Slang. beer.
verb (used with object)
plural noun
-
the bubbles on the surface of water in which soap, detergents, etc, have been dissolved; lather
-
soapy water
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slang beer or the bubbles floating on it
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sudssimple
-
sudsessimple
-
have sudsedperfect
-
has sudsedperfect
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am sudsingprogressive
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are sudsingprogressive
-
is sudsingprogressive
-
have been sudsingperfect progressive
-
has been sudsingperfect progressive
Past
-
sudsedsimple
-
had sudsedperfect
-
was sudsingprogressive
-
were sudsingprogressive
-
had been sudsingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of suds
1540–50; 1900–05 suds for def. 3; perhaps < Middle Dutch sudse puddle, marsh; akin to sodden
Explanation
The frothy soap bubbles you make when you wash your hands are suds. If you put too much detergent in your dishwasher, the kitchen floor could end up covered in suds. Besides suds made from soap (the word is actually short for soapsuds), there are other foamy, frothy substances you can call suds. Sometimes the tide leaves suds on the beach, and you may be fond of sipping suds off the top of your root beer float. Because it's often topped with suds, beer itself is informally known as suds. In the 16th century, suds meant "dregs or muck."
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:
So when state troopers spotted the suds, they charged Mr. Jouppi with a misdemeanor for knowingly transporting it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
May’s papa party offered, along with the suds, a learning experience and camaraderie among fathers, which Nieves believes is much needed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
Foams appear in everyday life as soap suds, shaving cream, whipped toppings and food emulsions like mayonnaise.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 15, 2026
Branding was not much of a consideration, he said, since he had no plans to sell his suds.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2024
She liked detergent commercials especially, anything with animated scrubbing bubbles or avenging suds.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Then sudses with all her heart those three or four ounces of gray hair, soft and interesting as a baby’s.
From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison
First, a soapy sponge—nothing fancy, just one of the cheap ones, sudsed up with a dish soap that smells good.
From Salon ● May 5, 2026
You could try the “mermaid” approach, where you encourage your daughter to lie down in the bath to wet her head, then come back up to be sudsed.
From Slate ● Mar. 8, 2021
Blitz Family Robinson Soap operas, the joy and pain of millions of U.S. radio listeners, have never sudsed up the English air.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some of the soaps' Homeric techniques have already sudsed off on the evening shows, partly through the smash spoof opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman!
From Time Magazine Archive
When James had scraped the soot from his face and neck and hands, and had sudsed it from his hair, James observed, with some concern, that Pirate was coughing at a great rate.
From Man on the Box by MacGrath, Harold
But I’d say seven to ten minutes of my 15-minute reset is, almost always, spent sudsing and scrubbing.
From Salon ● May 5, 2026
The declaration came emphatically, out of nowhere — dropped between sudsing his hair and rinsing out the shampoo with a plastic yellow duck full of water.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2017
It does nothing for you unless you notice it — but it is so humble and boring; and sudsing, rinsing and wiping are so pedestrian.
From New York Times ● Sep. 26, 2011
Throughout their four-year marriage, Kris and Rita have led a not-so-private life that would have a soap scenarist sudsing with envy.
From Time Magazine Archive
Eventually I pick up the soap, and as I’m sudsing the washcloth, it crosses my mind that it would be hard to soap up with just one hand.
From "The Running Dream" by Wendelin Van Draanen
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.
