What is "dud"

c.1825, "person in ragged clothing," from duds (q.v.). Sense extended by 1897 to "counterfeit thing," and 1908 to "useless, inefficient person or thing." This led naturally in World War I to "shell which fails to explode," and thence to "expensive failure."\n\n\n

n. 1 (context informal English) 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. 2 A lottery ticket that does not give a payout. 3 Something that doesn't function properly 4 (context obsolete English) Clothes, now always used in plural form duds. 5 A loser, an unlucky person

adj. failing to detonate; especially not charged with an active explosive; "he stepped on a dud mine"

1. n. someone who is unsuccessful [syn: flop, washout]

2. an explosion that fails to occur [syn: misfire]

3. an event that fails badly or is totally ineffectual; "the first experiment was a real turkey"; "the meeting was a dud as far as new business was concerned" [syn: turkey, bomb]

A dud is an ammunition round or explosive that fails to fire or detonate, respectively, on time or on command. Poorly designed devices (for example, improvised explosive devices (IEDs)), and small devices, have higher chances of being duds.

Duds are still dangerous, and can explode if handled. They have to be deactivated and disposed of carefully. In wartorn areas, many curious children have been injured or killed from tampering with such devices.

The term descends from the Middle English dudde, meaning "ragged clothing", and had been in usage as a general pejorative for something worn-out or useless for several centuries prior to the widespread adoption of the fused explosive artillery shell.

The variation absolute dud describes a nuclear weapon that fails to explode. (A nuclear weapon which does explode, but does not achieve its expected power, is termed a fizzle).

By extension, "dud" has become a slang word for anything that does not work or is defective. There is also a candy called Milk Duds, so named because it was impossible to get them perfectly round.

A dud is an ammunition round or explosive that fails to fire or detonate, respectively.

Dud or Dudd may also refer to:

As a nickname or name:

• Dudd (died between 781 and 785), Bishop of Winchester
• William Odell Dud Bascomb (1916-1972), American jazz trumpeter
• Dud Beattie (born 1934), Australian former rugby league footballer
• Dudley DeGroot (1899-1970), American athlete and college and National Football League head coach
• Dudd or Dud Dudley (1600–1684), English metallurgist, soldier, military engineer and munitions supplier
• William Dudley Dud Lastrapes (born 1929), American businessman and politician
• Ernest Holford Dud Lee (1899-1971), American backup Major League Baseball infielder
• Dudley Richards (1932-1961), American figure skater
• Dud, a character played by Dudley Moore - see Pete and Dud
• Dudley A. "Dud" Wash, one of The Darlings, fictional recurring characters in the TV series The Andy Griffith Show
• Dudd, a character in Glumpers, a Spanish animated TV series

Other uses:

• Der Blindgänger or The Dud, a 2004 short German film by Andreas Samland
• Dud, a village in the commune of Târnova, Arad, Romania
• dud, ISO 639 code for the Duka language of Nigeria