dud
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dud
- /dʌd/
Rhymes with -ʌd
Where it comes from
From Middle English dudde (“cloak, mantle, kind of cloth; ragged clothing or cloth”), from Old English *dudda (attested only as personal name Dudda, part of modern English Dudley), akin to Old Norse dúði (“swaddling clothes”), Low German dudel. Possibly borrowed from the Old Norse word and related to dýja (“to shake, tremble”).
noun duds
- A device or machine that is useless because it does not work properly or has failed to work, such as a bomb, or explosive projectile. The only amusing highlight was Gudgeon having managed to exploit U.S. codebreaking efforts to ambush and destroy the submarine I-173, albeit not for the lack of the Mark 14's trying to sabotage the effort, as the torpedo that had hit the sub had refused to detonate; it seemed, however, that the car-
- A failure of any kind. At the end of the day, the vast majority of primary schools are vibrant, friendly places and you may struggle to choose one because they all seem so great. Primary schools tend to have the feelgood factor. If you just aren't feeling it, this one's probably a dud.
- A loser; an unlucky person. I got stuck with a seatmate who was a conversational dud.
-
A lottery ticket that does not give a payout.
Similar: blank
- Clothes, now always used in plural form duds.
adjective duddest
- Useless; failing; ineffective. […] they're flying in the duddest of dud weather to hold the Germans back.
verb duds · dudding · dudded
- to swindle; to deceive or rip off.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: misfire, flop, unloaded, washout, bomb, turkey, flawed, fault, loser, miss, failed, failure, bankrupt, malfunction, slacker, unsuccessful
Translations
Every language
noun broken or nonfunctional device that does not perform its intended function
| Español | llufa (DEA) |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 不発弾 fuhatsudan |
| 中文 | 瞎炮 xiāpào, 啞炮 /哑炮 yǎpào, 啞彈 /哑弹 yǎdàn, 瞎彈 /瞎弹 xiādàn |
| Français | munition non explosée |
| Deutsch | Blindgänger, Versager |
| Русский | неразорва́вшийся снаря́д nerazorvávšijsja snarjád |
noun lottery ticket that does not give a payout
| Deutsch | Niete |
|---|
Talk about this word "dud." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/dud. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. dud. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/dud "dud." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/dud.Cite this
@misc{dud_2026,
title = {dud},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dud},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
