# dud
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English dudde (“cloak, mantle, kind of cloth; ragged clothing or cloth”), from Old English *dudda (attested only as personal name Dudda, part of modern English Dudley), akin to Old Norse dúði (“swaddling clothes”), Low German dudel. Possibly borrowed from the Old Norse word and related to dýja (“to shake, tremble”).

### Pronunciation

* enPR: dŭd, IPA: /dʌd/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʌd

### Noun

dud (plural duds)
* (informal) A device or machine that is useless because it does not work properly or has failed to work, such as a bomb, or explosive projectile.
** 2021 December 29, Drachinifel, 21:03 from the start, in The USN Pacific Submarine Campaign - The Dark Year (Dec'41 - Dec'42)‎, archived from the original on 19 July 2022:The only amusing highlight was Gudgeon having managed to exploit U.S. codebreaking efforts to ambush and destroy the submarine I-173, albeit not for the lack of the Mark 14's trying to sabotage the effort, as the torpedo that had hit the sub had refused to detonate; it seemed, however, that the car-crash levels of kinetic energy involved in the dud simply ramming the sub had nonetheless done enough to fatally damage it.
** 2024 February 1, Joshua P. Cohen, “Innovation - Healthcare”, in Forbes‎:Alzheimer's Drug Aduhelm Went From Being Hailed A 'Game Changer' To A Dud
* (informal) A failure of any kind.
** 2014 September 23, A teacher, “Choosing a primary school: a teacher's guide for parents”, in The Guardian:At the end of the day, the vast majority of primary schools are vibrant, friendly places and you may struggle to choose one because they all seem so great. Primary schools tend to have the feelgood factor. If you just aren't feeling it, this one's probably a dud.
** (informal) A loser; an unlucky person.
*** 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:"Now you can't fool me. Tom, I'm not one o' those duds that pay you a thick 'un for an hour in the dark."
** A lottery ticket that does not give a payout.
* (obsolete, informal) Clothes, now always used in plural form duds.

#### Synonyms

* (losing lottery ticket): blank

#### Derived terms

* duddy

#### See also

* wet firecracker

#### References

* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “dud”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* ↑ Transactions of the Philological Society. (1887). United Kingdom: Society, p. 292

### Adjective

dud (not comparable) (superlative duddest)
* Useless; failing; ineffective.
** 2019, Max Hennessy, The Bright Blue Sky:[…] they're flying in the duddest of dud weather to hold the Germans back.

### Anagrams

* DDU, UDD

## Czech
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈdut]
* Rhymes: -ut

### Noun

dud
* genitive plural of dudy

## Maltese

* Root
* d-w-d
* 2 terms

### Etymology

From Arabic دُود (dūd).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /duːt/

### Noun

dud m (collective, singulative dudu or duda, plural dwied, paucal dudiet)
* worms; worms as a species

## Polish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈdut/
* Rhymes: -ut
* Syllabification: dud

### Noun

dud
* genitive plural of dudy

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish طوت (tut, dut), from Persian توت (tut).

### Noun

dud m (plural duzi)
* mulberry (tree)

#### Derived terms

* dudă

## Serbo-Croatian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish طوت (tut, dut), from Persian توت (tut).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /dûd/

### Noun

dȕd m (Cyrillic spelling ду̏д)
* mulberry (fruit)
    Synonym: mȗrva

#### Declension
## Welsh
### Noun

dud
* Soft mutation of tud.

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.