scud

comparative more scud · superlative most scud · alternative skud

1. ScotlandslangNaked.

present singular third person scuds · participle present scudding · participle past scudded · past scudded · alternative skud

1. intransitiveTo race along swiftly (especially used of clouds).

   clouds scudding across the sky

   5 more examples

   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

   From the thick copse the roebucks bound, The startled red-deer scuds the plain […]

   1807, “Cadyow Castle”, in The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, volume 4, Walter Scott

   The wind was high; the vast white clouds scudded over the blue heaven […]

   1844, Benjamin Disraeli, chapter XVI, in Coningsby, or the New Generation

   I saw a rhinoceros, buffalo (a large herd), eland, quagga, and sable antelope, the most beautiful of all the bucks, not to mention many smaller varieties of game, and three ostriches which scudded away at our approach like white drift before a gale.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   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

2. ambitransitivenauticalTo run, or be driven, before a high wind with few or no sails set.

   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

   1 more example

   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

3. NorthumbriaTo hit or slap.
4. NorthumbriaTo speed.
5. NorthumbriaTo skim flat stones so they skip along the water.
6. To scrape (skins) to remove hair etc. as part of the tanning process.

plural scuds · alternative skud

1. countableuncountableThe act of scudding.
2. countableuncountableClouds or rain(s) (or snow, etc) driven by the wind.

   ... 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

   5 more examples

   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

   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 Village and Neighbourhood ... by ... Robert Mudie, page 246

   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

   ... banks o' scud drave ragged past, And blashed upon his face, For blast on blast, frae the southwast, Did ither raging chace,[…]

   1876, John Mactaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, page 498

   ... a scud of rain splashed on the window, drowning a sentence of the First Lesson.

   1892, Arthur Quiller-Couch, I Saw Three Ships: And Other Winter Tales, IndyPublish.com, page 12

3. uncountableA 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. countableuncountableA gust of wind.
5. countableuncountableBristolA scab on a wound.
6. countableuncountableA small flight of larks, or other birds, less than a flock.
7. countableuncountableAny swimming amphipod, usually Gammarus
8. countableuncountableA swift runner.
9. countableuncountableA form of garden hoe.
10. countableuncountableA slap; a sharp stroke.
11. ScotlandslanguncountablePornography.
12. ScotlandslanguncountableThe drink Irn-Bru.

    a bottle of scud

1. A Soviet-developed tactical ballistic missile.