dude
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dude
- /duːd/ US
- [dʉːwd] US, term of address
- /d(j)uːd/ UK
- /ɖ(j)uɖ/ South Asia
Rhymes with -uːd
Where it comes from
Uncertain, though likely a clipping of doodle (“fool, simpleton, mindless person”), perhaps with reference to the fashionable “Yankee Doodle dandy” in the 18th-century lyrics of the song “Yankee Doodle”; the word is first attested in 1883 as a New York City slang term of contempt for a “fastidious man, fop”. If so, then related to German Low German Dudeldop, Dudendop (“fool, dunce”), Saterland Frisian Duddigegen (“idiot”).
It has also been suggested that the word is derived from dudes (“old rags”; compare duds) and dudesman (“scarecrow”), or possibly related to dawdle; It has also been suggested the word derives from the Irish dúid.
The common claim that the term derives from (or is) a word for a camel's foreskin (or some other vulgar thing, like a hair on a cow, horse, donkey, or elephant's bottom) is false.
noun dudes · dood · dewd · d00d · dud · dued
- A man, generally a younger man. So we were at the mall and these two dudes just walk up to us and say "hi".
- A term of address for someone, often but not exclusively a man, particularly when hailing, cautioning them or offering advice. Hey, dude, how's it going?
- A tourist. Dudes are at least as entertaining as cows, even when they don't mean to be. A cow can’t voice that honestly curious question that turns a poor cowboy into a laughing fool the way a dude can. Probably nothing in the world can move a cowboy more than a newborn calf's clean, good looks and actions, un
- A birder who has expensive clothing and equipment, but scant knowledge of birds, their fieldmarks, habits, etc. I am forever slagging off some poor harmless dude or pitiful demented twitcher[.]
- A man who is very concerned about his dress and appearance; a dandy, a fop. When the dude dons gloves couleur de chien jaune éclairé de la lune—
- In the west, a city slicker with scant knowledge of horses, cattle, or frontier survival. Up to the time, Ranse Foster had been a nobody in particular - a dude from the East, quietly inquisitive, moving from one shack town to another; just another tenderfoot[.]
interjection dood · dewd · d00d · dud · dued
- A term of address, usually for a man, conveying awe, excitement, surprise, annoyance, etc. Dude! You finally called!
verb dudes · dudeing · duding · duded · dood
- To address someone as dude. "Where you been, Mac? I missed you! Dude—I mean, man," she corrects hastily, with a gamine grin, before I can make good on a threat I made in what feels like another lifetime that I would call her by her full name if she ever "duded" me again. […] Oh, yes, she's upset. She just unapologetically "dud
- To take a vacation in a dude ranch. The Old Hearst Ranch […] is one of the West's largest and most elaborate dude ranches and includes over 500 acres of woodland trails. There's "dudeing" with all the trimmings, excellent food and rooms at the lodge or individual cabanas.
- Usually followed by up: to dress up, to wear smart or special clothes. It seemed that the fellas couldn't get enough girlin' and racing fast cars and grooving to rock and dudeing around in city-slick suits from St. Louis.
