SCUD • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Scud

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/skəd/ Listen

noun

Scud n.

The act of scudding; a driving along; a rushing with precipitation.

Loose, vapory clouds driven swiftly by the wind. "Borne on the scud of the sea." "The scud was flying fast above us, throwing a veil over the moon."

A slight, sudden shower. (Prov. Eng.)

(Zool.) A small flight of larks, or other birds, less than a flock. (Prov. Eng.)

(Zool.) Any swimming amphipod crustacean.

Storm scud. See the Note under Cloud.

verb

Scud v. t. To pass over quickly. (R.)

Scud v. i. (past & past part. scudded; pres. part. scudding)

To move swiftly; especially, to move as if driven forward by something. "The first nautilus that scudded upon the glassy surface of warm primeval oceans." "The wind was high; the vast white clouds scudded over the blue heaven."

(Naut.) To be driven swiftly, or to run, before a gale, with little or no sail spread.

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Etymology of 'Scud'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Scud" Quotes from Famous Books

... the Sunda Straits about which the captain and his son had just been talking, and was so violent that they could do nothing but scud before it under almost bare poles. All that night it raged. Towards morning it increased to such a pitch that one of the back-stays of the foremast gave way. The result was that the additional strain thus thrown on the other stays was too much for them. They also parted, and the ...

— Blown to Bits - or, The Lonely Man of Rakata • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... changing plane of the rudder. But the waves were running tremendously high, and the wind blowing with great force, the water rolling in great mountains of sickly greenish gray, topped with foam that blew in a level scud. ...

— A Man to His Mate • J. Allan Dunn

... further examination satisfied him it was a mistake. So long had he been gazing at the same object, that it was easy for the illusion to pass before his mind's eye, of imagining a dim outline of the little lugger flying away, like the scud of the heavens, wing-and-wing, ever seeming to elude his observation. That night he dreamed of her, and there were haply five minutes during which his wandering thoughts actually portrayed the process of taking possession, and ...

— The Wing-and-Wing - Le Feu-Follet • J. Fenimore Cooper

... where, and off the Havannah, we cruised for some weeks without taking anything. One night, having the middle watch and looking over the lee gangway, I observed some black spots on the water. The moon, which was in her third quarter, was sometimes hidden by the dark scud, for it was blowing fresh, and when she shone in full splendour the spots appeared stationary. I lost no time in pointing this out to the lieutenant of the watch, who agreed with me that they must be the ...

— A Sailor of King George • Frederick Hoffman

... the Christmas season in California,—a season of falling rain and springing grasses. There were intervals when, through driving clouds and flying scud, the sun visited the haggard hills with a miracle, and death and resurrection were as one, and out of the very throes of decay a joyous life struggled outward and upward. Even the storms that swept ...

— Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands and Other Stories • Bret Harte

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