different between scud vs scut

English

Alternative forms

• skud (dialectal sense only)

Etymology

Perhaps from Old Norse skjóta (“to throw, to shoot”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk?d/
• Rhymes: -?d

Adjective

scud (comparative more scud, superlative most scud)

1. (slang, Scotland) Naked.

Verb

scud (third-person singular simple present scuds, present participle scudding, simple past and past participle scudded)

1. (intransitive) To race along swiftly (especially used of clouds).
   • 1799, William Wordsworth,The Two-Part Prelude, Book I:

     When scudding on from snare to snare I plied

     My anxious visitation, hurrying on,

     Still hurrying hurrying onward ...

   • 1807 Walter Scott, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. 4, "Cadyow Castle":

     From the thick copse the roebucks bound,

     The startled red-deer scuds the plain […]

   • 1844, Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby, or the New Generation, Chapter XVI:

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

   • 1920, Peter B. Kyne, The Understanding Heart, Chapter II:

     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, […]

2. (transitive, intransitive, nautical) To run, or be driven, before a high wind with no sails set.
3. (Northumbria) To hit or slap.
4. (Northumbria) To speed.
5. (Northumbria) To skim flat stones so they skip along the water.

Translations

References

• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, ?ISBN
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “scud”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Noun

scud (countable and uncountable, plural scuds)

1. The act of scudding.
2. Clouds or rain driven by the wind.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:

     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 […]

3. (uncountable) A loose formation of small ragged cloud fragments (or fog) not attached to a larger higher cloud layer.
   • 2004, US National Weather Service Glossary:

     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.

4. A gust of wind.
5. (Bristol) A scab on a wound.
6. A small flight of larks, or other birds, less than a flock.
7. Any swimming amphipod.
8. A swift runner.
9. A form of garden hoe.
10. A slap; a sharp stroke.
11. (slang, uncountable, Scotland) Pornography.
12. (slang, uncountable, Scotland) The drink Irn-Bru.

    a bottle of scud

Derived terms

• scud run

Synonyms

• (cloud): pannus or fractus

Translations

Anagrams

• CDUs, UCSD, cuds

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sk?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sk?t/, /sk?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English scut (“hare”); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Middle English scut, scute (“short”), possibly from Old French escorter, escurter, or Latin excurt?re, scurt?re, from curt? (“to cut short, shorten”), from curtus (“short; shortened”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”)) + -?. A derivation from Old Norse skut, skutr (“stern of a boat”), or Icelandic skott (“animal's tail”) is thought to be unlikely.

As to sense 3 (“the female pudenda, the vulva”), see the letter of 5 June 1875 from Joseph Crosby to Joseph Parker Norris published in One Touch of Shakespeare (1986).

Noun

scut (plural scuts)

1. (obsolete) A hare; (hunting, also figuratively) a hare as the game in a hunt.
2. A short, erect tail, as of a hare, rabbit, or deer.

   • Shakespeare's use of the word scut may be a sly reference to Mistress Ford's pudenda: see sense 3.

3. (by extension) The buttocks or rump; also, the female pudenda, the vulva.

Translations

Etymology 2

Origin uncertain, possibly a variant of scout (“(obsolete except Scotland) contemptible person”), possibly related to scout (“to reject with contempt; to scoff”), from a North Germanic language; compare Old Norse skúta, skúte (“a taunt”), probably from Proto-Germanic *skeutan? (“to shoot”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- (“to shoot; to throw”). Compare Old Norse skútyrði, skotyrði (“abusive language”).

Noun

scut (plural scuts)

1. (chiefly Ireland, colloquial) A contemptible person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:git

Translations

Etymology 3

Origin uncertain; perhaps related to scut (“contemptible person”): see etymology 2.

Noun

scut (countable and uncountable, plural scuts)

1. (attributively) Distasteful work; drudgery

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drudgery
2. (medicine, slang) Some menial procedure left for a doctor or medical student to complete, sometimes for training purposes.

Derived terms

• scut monkey
• scut work, scutwork

Translations

Etymology 4

Origin unknown; perhaps from scut(tle), or related to Swedish scutla (“to leap”).

Verb

scut (third-person singular simple present scuts, present participle scutting, simple past and past participle scut)

1. (intransitive, originally Cumbria, East Anglia, Yorkshire) To scamper off.

See also

• whid

References

Anagrams

• Cust., TUSC, U. S. C. T., U.S.C.T., UCTs, USCT, USTC, cust, cuts

Romanian

Etymology

From Latin sc?tum (“shield”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skei- (“to cut, split”), an extension of *sek- (“to cut”).

Noun

scut n (plural scuturi)

1. shield

Related terms

• scuti