Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To run or skim along swiftly and easily.
  • intransitive verb Nautical To run before a gale with little or no sail set.
  • noun The act of scudding.
  • noun Wind-driven clouds, mist, or rain.
  • noun A gust of wind.
  • noun Ragged low clouds, moving rapidly beneath another cloud layer.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To run swiftly; shoot or fly along with haste.
  • Nautical, to run before a gale with little or no sail set.
  • To throw thin flat stones so that they skip over the surface of water.
  • In tanning, to remove remaining hairs, dirt, etc., from (skins or hides) with a hand-knife after depilation.
  • To pass over quickly.
  • To beat or chastise, especially on the bare buttocks; skelp; spank.
  • noun Dirt, lime, and fat left in the grain of a skin after it comes from the puer.
  • noun The act of scudding; a driving along; a running or rushing with speed or precipitation.
  • noun Small detached clouds driven rapidly along under a mass of storm-cloud: a common accompaniment of rain.
  • noun A slight flying shower.
  • noun A small number of larks, less than a flock.
  • noun A swift runner; a scudder.
  • noun A smart stroke with the open hand; a skelp; a slap: as, to give one a scud on the face.
  • noun A beach-flea or sand-flea: some small crustacean, as an isopod or amphipod.
  • noun One of the largest scuds is Gammarus ornatus of the New England coast.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To pass over quickly.
  • intransitive verb To move swiftly; especially, to move as if driven forward by something.
  • intransitive verb (Naut.) To be driven swiftly, or to run, before a gale, with little or no sail spread.
  • noun The act of scudding; a driving along; a rushing with precipitation.
  • noun Loose, vapory clouds driven swiftly by the wind.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A slight, sudden shower.
  • noun (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. A small flight of larks, or other birds, less than a flock.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any swimming amphipod crustacean.
  • noun See the Note under Cloud.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective slang, Scotland Naked.
  • verb intransitive To race along swiftly (especially used of clouds).
  • verb intransitive, nautical To run before a high wind with no sails set.
  • verb Northumbrian To hit.
  • verb Northumbrian To speed.
  • verb Northumbrian To skim.
  • noun The act of scudding.
  • noun Clouds or rain driven by the wind.
  • noun A gust of wind.
  • noun A scab on a wound.
  • noun slang, Scotland Pornography.
  • noun slang, Scotland Irn-Bru.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb run before a gale
  • verb run or move very quickly or hastily
  • noun the act of moving along swiftly (as before a gale)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Possibly from Middle English scut, rabbit, rabbit's tail; see scut.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

Comments

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  • Scots - naked, nude.

    "Ooooh, yir nae allowed tae be in the scud here."

    - Oh, you are not allowed to be in the nude here.

    December 8, 2007

  • ...the driving scud, rack, and mist, grew darker with the shadows of night...

    - Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 48

    July 25, 2008

  • "Scudding drifts" used as a kenning for "waves"

    - Alfred Tennyson, Ulysses

    June 5, 2013