Meanings
adjectivepudibund (comparative more pudibund, superlative most pudibund)
comparative more pudibund · superlative most pudibund
- rareShy, bashful; prudish.
Involuntarily Lucette bent her head and frail spine, then she lay back on the outer half of Ada’s pillow in a martyr’s pudibund swoon, her locks spreading their orange blaze against the black velvet of the padded headboard.
1969, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 8, in Ada, or, Ardor: A Family Chronicle, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Book Company, →OCLC, page 329
Origin
- Latinpudibundus
- Englishpudibund
From Latin pudibundus, from pudeō (“make ashamed, be ashamed”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
pudibund. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pudibund
MLA
“pudibund.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pudibund. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pudibund,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pudibund.
Source: pudibund on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.