spud
Meanings
Plural: spuds
Noun
- an edible tuber native to South America; a staple food of Ireland
- a sharp hand shovel for digging out roots and weeds
- A potato.
- A hole in a sock.
- A type of short nut (fastener) threaded on both ends.
- Anything short and thick.
- A piece of dough boiled in fat.
- A testicle.
- A dagger.
- A digging fork with three broad prongs.
- A tool, similar to a spade, used for digging out weeds etc.
- A barking spud; a long-handled tool for removing bark from logs.
- A movable post through a sleeve in the hull of a work barge to anchor it to the bottom of a body of water.
- A short central rod in a lighting fixture, for attachment to the light.
Verb
- initiate drilling operations, as for petroleum
- "The well was spudded in April"
- produce buds, branches, or germinate
- To dig up weeds with a spud.
- 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.
- To remove the roofing aggregate and most of the bituminous top coating by scraping and chipping.
- To set up a recreational vehicle (RV) at a campsite, typically by leveling the RV and connecting it to electric, water, and/or sewer hookups.
Name
- A game for three or more players, involving the gradual elimination of players by throwing and catching a ball.
Origin / 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 was perhaps first used in New Zealand and Australian dialect and slang.
Synonyms
bourgeon, burgeon forth, germinate, Irish potato, murphy, potato, pullulate, shoot, sprout, stump spud, tater, white potato
Scrabble Score: 7
spud is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordspud is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
spud is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary