scud

Etymology

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

adj

1. (slang, Scotland) Naked.

verb

1. (intransitive) To race along swiftly (especially used of clouds).
   When scudding on from snare to snare I plied My anxious visitation, hurrying on, Still hurrying hurrying onward ... 1799, William Wordsworth, The Two-Part Prelude, Book I
   From the thick copse the roebucks bound, The startled red-deer scuds the plain […] 1807, “Cadyow Castle”, in The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, volume 4, Walter Scott
   The wind was high; the vast white clouds scudded over the blue heaven […] 1844, Benjamin Disraeli, chapter XVI, in Coningsby, or the New Generation
   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, […] 1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter II, in The Understanding Heart
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.

noun

1. The act of scudding.
2. Clouds or rain driven by the wind.
3. (uncountable) A loose formation of small ragged cloud fragments (or fog) not attached to a larger higher cloud layer.
   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. 2004, US National Weather Service Glossary
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