English Explanatory Dictionary

spud

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A potato.
  2. A hole in a sock.
  3. A type of short nut (fastener) threaded on both ends.
  4. Anything short and thick.
  5. A piece of dough boiled in fat.
  6. A testicle.
  7. A dagger.
  8. A digging fork with three broad prongs.
  9. A tool, similar to a spade, used for digging out weeds etc.
  10. A barking spud; a long-handled tool for removing bark from logs.
  11. A movable post through a sleeve in the hull of a work barge to anchor it to the bottom of a body of water.
  12. A short central rod in a lighting fixture, for attachment to the light.
verb
  1. To dig up weeds with a spud.
  2. To begin drilling an oil well; to drill by moving the drill bit and shaft up and down, or by raising and dropping a bit.
  3. To remove the roofing aggregate and most of the bituminous top coating by scraping and chipping.
  4. To set up a recreational vehicle (RV) at a campsite, typically by leveling the RV and connecting it to electric, water, or sewer hookups.
name
  1. A game for three or more players, involving the gradual elimination of players by throwing and catching a ball.

Pronunciation

/spʌd/ spŭd En-au-spud.ogg

Word forms

spud spuds spudding spudded

Etymology

From Middle English spudde (“small knife”). Origin unknown; probably related to Danish spyd, Old Norse spjót (“spear”), German Spieß (“spear; spike; skewer”). Compare English spit (“sharp, pointed rod”). The use of the term for a potato perhaps first appeared in New Zealand and Australian dialect and slang.

Related words

spudding

Derived words

bark spud love spud sofa spud spud bashing spud-bashing Spudboy spud cocky spuddy spudger spud gun spud head spudless spudlike spudnut Spuds spud washer spudzooka spudder
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on S Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary