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scud

[skuhd]

Origin

verb (used without object)

to run or move quickly or hurriedly.

Nautical. to run before a gale with little or no sail set.

Archery. (of an arrow) to fly too high and wide of the mark.

noun

the act of scudding.

clouds, spray, or mist driven by the wind; a driving shower or gust of wind.

low-drifting clouds appearing beneath a cloud from which precipitation is falling.

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Origin:
1525–35; < Middle Low German schudden to shake

Dictionary.com Unabridged

verb (used with object)

to cleanse (a trimmed and roughly depilated skin or hide) of remaining hairs or dirt.

noun

the hairs or dirt removed by scudding.

Origin:
1635–45; perhaps to be identified with obsolete scud dirt < ?

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To Scud

Collins

World English Dictionary

scud (skʌd)

—vb , scuds, scudding, scudded
1.	(intr) (esp of clouds) to move along swiftly and smoothly
2.	(intr) nautical to run before a gale
3.	(Scot) (tr) to hit; slap

—n
4.	the act of scudding
5.	meteorol
	a. a formation of low fractostratus clouds driven by a strong wind beneath rain-bearing clouds
	b. a sudden shower or gust of wind
6.	(Scot) a slap

[C16: probably of Scandinavian origin; related to Norwegian skudda to thrust, Swedish skudda to shake]

Scud (skʌd)

—n
	informal a Soviet-made surface-to-surface missile, originally designed to carry nuclear warheads and with a range of 300 km; later modified to achieve greater range: used by Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War and in the Gulf Wars

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

scud

"to move quickly," 1532, perhaps a variant of M.E. scut "rabbit, rabbit's tail," in reference to its movements, perhaps from O.N. skjota "to throw, shoot" (cf. Norw. skudda "to shove, push"), but there are phonetic difficulties. Perhaps rather from a N.Sea Gmc. source akin to M.L.G., M.Du. schudden "to

EXPAND

shake." The noun meaning "type of ballistic missile" is the NATO reporting name for a type of Soviet missile introduced in the 1960s.

COLLAPSE

Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia

scud

any member of the invertebrate order Amphipoda (class Crustacea) inhabiting all parts of the sea, lakes, rivers, sand beaches, caves, and moist (warm) habitats on many tropical islands. Marine amphipods have been found at depths of more than 9,100 m (30,000 feet). Freshwater and marine beach species are commonly known as scuds; those that occupy sand beaches are called sand hoppers, or sand fleas (see sand flea). About 4,600 species have been described. Extraordinarily abundant in the rocky coastal regions of all seas and often exceeding densities of 10,000 per square m (1,000 per square foot), amphipods are often mistaken for tiny shrimp, which they resemble. They are important food for many fishes, invertebrates, penguins, shore birds, small cetaceans, and pinnipeds. Amphipods are also important as scavengers of carrion

Learn more about scud with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Matching Quote

"This autumnal festival, when men are gathered in crowds in the streets as regularly and by as natural a law as the leaves cluster and rustle by the wayside, is naturally associated in my mind with the fall of the year. The low of cattle in the streets sounds like a hoarse symphony or running bass to the rustling of the leaves. The wind goes hurrying down the country, gleaning every loose straw that is left in the fields, while every farmer lad too appears to scud before it ... to country fairs and cattle-shows, to that Rome among the villages where the treasures of the year are gathered."

-Henry David Thoreau

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