Word.ws English Dictionary

scud

/skʌd/

scud adjective: naked.

Adjective

scud (comparative more scud, superlative most scud)

  1. (Scotland, slang) Naked.

Verb

scud (third-person singular simple present scuds, present participle scudding, simple past and past participle scudded)

  1. (intransitive) To race along swiftly (especially used of clouds).
    • clouds scudding across the sky
    • When scudding on from snare to snare I plied
      My anxious visitation, hurrying on,
      Still hurrying hurrying onward ...1799, William Wordsworth, The Two-Part Prelude, Book I
  2. (ambitransitive) To run, or be driven, before a high wind with few or no sails set.
    • If the Main Topsail should by any accident be split, it will be still necessary to have a lofty Sail set in such a Sea, and the close reefed Topsail singly will be the best to scud under.1835, Darcy Lever, The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor
    • all night they were obliged to scud under bare poles.1849, Washington Irving, The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus; Together with the Voyages of His Companions
  3. (Northumbria) To hit or slap.
  4. (Northumbria) To speed.
  5. (Northumbria) To skim flat stones so they skip along the water.
  6. To scrape (skins) to remove hair etc. as part of the tanning process.

Noun

scud (countable and uncountable, plural scuds)

  1. The act of scudding.
  2. Clouds or rain(s) (or snow, etc) driven by the wind.
    • But high above the flying scud and dark-rolling clouds, there floated a little isle of sunlight, from which beamed forth an angel's face […]1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
    • ... he will have a wet journey, seeing it is apout to pe a scud."1818, Walter Scott, Tales of My Landlord: Second series, page 350
  3. (uncountable) A loose formation of small ragged cloud fragments (or fog) not attached to a larger higher cloud layer.
    • Small, ragged, low cloud fragments that are unattached to a larger cloud base and often seen with and behind cold fronts and thunderstorm gust fronts. Such clouds generally are associated with cool moist air, such as thunderstorm outflow.2004, US National Weather Service Glossary
    Synonyms:
    pannus, fractus
  4. A gust of wind.
  5. (Bristol) A scab on a wound.
  6. A small flight of larks, or other birds, less than a flock.
  7. Any swimming amphipod, usually Gammarus
  8. A swift runner.
  9. A form of garden hoe.
  10. A slap; a sharp stroke.
  11. (Scotland, slang, uncountable) Pornography.
  12. (Scotland, slang, uncountable) The drink Irn-Bru.
    • a bottle of scud

Proper noun capitalized: Scud

Scud

  1. A Soviet-developed tactical ballistic missile.

scud meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

scud in Tamil

கசடு

scud in Bengali

দ্রুত বেগে চলা

scud in Malayalam

race, speed, rush
പാറിപ്പോകുക, ഓടിപ്പോകുക, വേഗം പോകുക, വേഗത്തിൽ പോകുക, മുഴുവേഗത്തിൽ നീങ്ങുക, പായുക

scud in Kannada

ಚೆಚ್ಚರ ಓಡು, ಹಾರಿಹೋಗು

Examples of scud in a sentence

  • The wind was high; the vast white clouds scudded over the blue heaven […]1844, Benjamin Disraeli, chapter XVI, in Coningsby, or the New Generation:
  • During the preceding afternoon a heavy North Pacific fog had blown in […] Scudding eastward from the ocean, it had crept up and over the redwood-studded crests of the Coast Range mountains, […]1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter II, in The Understanding Heart:
  • Places near the sea have frequent scuds, that keep the atmosphere moist, yet do not reach far up into the country; making thus the maritime situations appear wet, when the rain is not considerable.1858, Gilbert White, The Natural History of Selborne ... A New Edition with Notes by Edward Blyth. To which is Added a Description of the...
  • She'll cure this scud o' sentimental win' Wi' something o' a mair substantial kin';1868, James Salmon (Poetical Writer.), Gowodean: a Pastoral, page 12:

Synonyms of scud

Forms of scud

Adjective
comparativemore scud
superlativemost scud
alternative formskud
Verb
third-person singular presentscuds
present participlescudding
past participlescudded
pastscudded
Noun
pluralscuds

Past tense of scud: scudded

Origin of scud

First attested in 1530, of unknown origin but perhaps from Middle English scut (“rabbit, rabbit's tail”) or from Middle Dutch schudden (“to shake”), ultimately of Scandinavian origin.

The term comes from the NATO reporting name SS-1 Scud which was attached to the missile by Western intelligence agencies.

Words formed from scud

Phrases with scud

Words that rhyme with scud

15 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about scud

What does scud mean?
Scud means naked.
What is scud in Tamil?
Scud in Tamil is கசடு. See Scud meaning in Tamil.
How do you use scud in a sentence?
The wind was high; the vast white clouds scudded over the blue heaven […]
What part of speech is scud?
Scud can be an adjective, a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce scud?
Scud is pronounced /skʌd/.

Words near scud in the dictionary

  1. scubas
  2. scuchin
  3. scuchins
  4. scuchion
  5. scuchions
  6. scud
  7. scud ran
  8. scud run
  9. scud running
  10. scud runs
  11. Scudamore

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scud (page history and authors); Scud (page history and authors); scud (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scud (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scud (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); scud (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-scud.ogg.

Cite this entry: “scud.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scud. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.