noun
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a person or thing that proves ineffectual or a failure
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a shell, etc, that fails to explode
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old-fashioned (plural) clothes or other personal belongings
adjective
Etymology
Origin of dud
1815–25; special use of dud, singular of duds
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Consider the 1965 game Mystery Date, in which girls try to land a dreamy date and avoid the sloppily dressed “dud” guy.
At the time, they had no idea whether it would be a good investment or a dud, he adds.
But as a taxpayer investment so far, Bitcoin has been a dud.
From Barron's
“Makes sense to me,” said Aunt Pretty, folding up my new duds.
From Literature
Later that decade it could have paid for the polyester duds John Travolta sported in “Saturday Night Fever.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
