ruddock
/ˈɹʌdək/
ruddock noun: the European robin.
Noun
ruddock (plural ruddocks)
- The European robin.
- The Ouzell shrills; the Ruddock warbles soft.1595, Edmund Spenser, Epithalamion
- The sweet And shrilly ruddock, with its bleeding breast1827, Thomas Hood, The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies
- A piece of gold money (probably because the gold of coins was often reddened by copper alloy).
- Great pieces of gold […] red ruddocks.1611, John Florio, Queen Anna's New World of Words, or Dictionarie of the Italian and English tongues
- A variety of red apple, used for cidermaking.
Proper noun capitalized: Ruddock
Ruddock (plural Ruddocks)
- A surname.
- A ghost town in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, United States, destroyed by a hurricane.
Forms of ruddock
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ruddocks |
| alternative form | reddock |
| alternative form | raddock |
| alternative form | ruddoc |
| alternative form | rudock |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Ruddocks |
| alternative form | Rudick |
Origin of ruddock
From Middle English ruddocke, ruddok, roddok, from Old English rudduc, ruduc (“robin, ruddock”, literally “little red one, red-ling”), equivalent to rud (“redness”) + -ock (diminutive suffix). The Welsh rhuddog, and Cornish rudhek (“the redbreast”) are probably from the English, although a derivation from a British Celtic *roudākos (< *roudos "red") for all three cannot be ruled out. More at rud.
Questions about ruddock
- What does ruddock mean?
- Ruddock means the European robin.
- What part of speech is ruddock?
- Ruddock can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce ruddock?
- Ruddock is pronounced /ˈɹʌdək/.
- What is the plural of ruddock?
- The plural of ruddock is ruddocks.
Words near ruddock in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ruddock (page history and authors); Ruddock (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “ruddock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ruddock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.