▪ I. cud, n.
(kʌd)
Forms: 1 cwidu, cwudu, cudu, 2–5 cude, (4–5 kude), 3–5 code, (4–5 kode), 4–5 cod(de, quede, 4–7 cudde, (5–6 kudde), 4–8 quide, 7 cood, 8–9 dial. quid, 9 dial. queed, keed, 4– cud.
[OE. cwidu (cweodu, cwudu, cudu) neut., gen. cwidues. App. radically identical with OHG. chuti, quiti glue, glutinous substance; stem kwed-, cf. Skr. jatu resin; in ablaut relation with ON. kváða, Sw. kåda resin, ME. code2.]
1. a. The food which a ruminating animal brings back into its mouth from its first stomach, and chews at leisure. Usually in to chew the cud.
| c 1000 ælfric Saints' Lives (Skeat) xxv. 46 Þa clænan nytenu þe heora cudu ceowað. c 1200 Ormin 1237 & oxe chewweþþ þær he gaþ Hiss cŭde. a 1300 Cursor M. 1958 (Cott.) O beist has clouen fote in tua An chewand cude [v.r. code], ȝee ete o þaa. 1382 Wyclif Deut. xiv. 6 All beest that in two partis deuydith the clee and chewith code [1388 quide]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 85 Cudde of bestys chewynge [1499 cod], rumen. 1587 L. Mascall Govt. Cattle (1627) 40 A handfull of the hearbe called Cud-wort, which they..conueigh..into the beasts mouth to swallow, that hath lost his quide. 1591 Spenser Virg. Gnat 144 The whiles his flock their chawed cuds do eate. 1736 Pegge Kenticisms, Quid, the cud. 1852 N. Hawthorne Blithedale Rom. xxiv, They began grazing and chewing their cuds. 1880 Antrim Gloss., Keed, cud. 1888 W. Somerset Word-bk., Queed, cud. Always so pronounced. |
b. fig. to chew the cud: to recall and reflect meditatively on things said, done, or suffered; to ruminate: see chew v. 4 b.
2. Any substance used by men to keep in the mouth and chew. In OE. hw{iacu}t cwidu, cudu, mastic. Now a dial. form of quid (of tobacco).
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 66 Hwit cwudu. Ibid. 182 Mid hwites cwidues duste. 1828 Webster, Cud..2. A portion of tobacco held in the mouth and chewed. 1880 W. Cornwall Gloss., Cud, a quid of tobacco. |
† 3. See quots. (? An error: not in Johnson.)
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Cud, the inner part of the Throat in Beasts. 1721 in Bailey. 1828 Webster, Cud, the inside of the mouth or throat of a beast that chews the cud. |
4. Comb., as cud-chewing ppl. a.; † cud-bream (see quot.); cud-chewer, a ruminant animal.
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 314 The delicate, cud-chewing Golden-eye. 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 268 There is a kind of Bream called Scarus ruminans, which we call a Cud-bream, because his Lips are ever wagging like a Cow chawing the Cud. 1800 J. Hurdis Fav. Village 205 The cud-chewing cow. 1927 Haldane & Huxley Anim. Biol. iv. 112 In cud-chewers like the cow and sheep. |
▪ II. † cud, v. Obs. rare.
[f. the n.]
trans. To chew as cud, ruminate upon.
| 1569 Crowley Soph. Dr. Watson i. 127 Cudding the holy scriptures with a spiritual tooth [transl. spirituali dente ruminans scripturas]. 1966 New Statesman 1 Apr. 473/1 Cows..Cudding, watching, and knowing. |