Also 5–6 spudde, 7 spudd. [Of obscure origin.]
† 1. A short and poor knife or dagger. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 471/1. Spudde, cultellus vilis.
c. 1450. Cast. Persev., 1402. With my spud of sorwe swote, I reche to þyne herte rote.
1530. Palsgr., 274/2. Spudde.
1589. Fleming, Virg. Georg., II. 24. The Volces also bearing darts (or spuds in shape like spits).
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIX. i. 352. The one … with a spud or dagger was wounded almost to death.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Spud, a short scurvy knife.
1823–4. in Poole, Wexford Gloss. (1867), 69. Spud, a knife.
† 2. An iron head or blade socketed on or fixed to a plow-staff. Obs.–1
1613. Markham, Eng. Husbandman, C. The Husbandman which liueth in durty and stiffe clayes, can neuer goe to plough without … the Aker-staffe,… a pretty bigge cudgell, of about a yarde in length, with an Iron spud at the end.
3. a. A digging or weeding implement of the spade-type, having a narrow chisel-shaped blade.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 10 Oct. We … begun with a spudd to lift up the ground.
1728. Swift, Past. Dial., Wks. 1755, III. II. 203. My spud these nettles from the stones can part; No knife so keen to weed thee from my heart.
1773. Mrs. Delany, Life & Corr. (1861), I. 570. I sally’d out in a rage, arm’d with a spud.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 748. In making the pits or holes, the earth is taken out by a spade or spud.
1856. A. Andrews, Eighteenth Cent., 24. It was of the length and size of the ‘spud,’ an agricultural weapon which old farmers persist in carrying about with them in their war upon weeds.
1877. Blackmore, Cripps, xxxi. The Squire still looking very pale and feeble, but with the help of his favourite spud, managing to get along.
fig. a. 1876. M. Collins, Pen Sketches (1879), II. 51. They reappear inevitably, though the heavy harrow of argument, and the light spud of wit have both been used upon them.
Comb. 1891. Miss Dowie, Girl in Karp., 226. She shook a bannock carefully from the spud-shaped spade to bake.
b. A digging fork with three broad prongs.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 757. The labourer makes use of a three-pronged fork, which in some places is termed a spud,… each prong being about an inch and a half in breadth.
1848. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., IX. 551. Digging is done with a strong three-forked tool called a hop-spud.
1883. J. Y. Stratton, Hops & Hop-pickers, 22. The Kentish labourers dig with a spud or fork with three blade-like prongs.
attrib. 1848. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., IX. II. 560. Letting the earth fall loosely between the spud-spens.
c. techn. (See quot.)
1864. Holtzapffel, Turning, II. 813. As the veneer is sawn off, the attendant leads the veneer on to the guide, by means of a spud, or a thin blunt chisel.
d. A small instrument with enlarged end used in ocular and other surgery. Also attrib.
1869. G. Lawson, Dis. Eye, 57. The foreign body … may be easily removed by a spud … or by a broad needle.
1895. Arnold & Sons’ Catal. Surg. Instrum., 144. Spud and Gouge (combined), in screw ivory case. Ibid. Spud Knife.
e. U.S. (See quots.)
Some other senses are recorded in recent American Dicts.
1871. Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. Engin., I. 378. If the [surveying] station was intended to be a permanent one, a spud, as it is called, that is, a nail resembling a horseshoe nail with a hole in the head, is driven into the timbers over the station.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2292/2. Spud,… a spade-shaped implement, used in fishing for broken tools in a well.
4. A short or stumpy person or thing.
1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. A Spud, or little Fellow.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Spud,… a Short-arse, or little despicable Fellow.
a. 1825–. in dialect glossaries (E. Angl., Essex, Devon, Cornw.).
1847. Halliw., Spud, a baby’s hand. Somerset.
1900. Daily News, 26 April, 3/1. That baby … everlastingly holds out its spuds of arms.
5. slang and dial. A potato.
Cf. Spuddy as a nickname for ‘a seller of bad potatoes’ in Mayhew, Lond. Lab. (1851), I. 24/2.
1860. Slang Dict., 225. In Scotland, a spud is a raw potato; and roasted spuds are those cooked in the cinders with their jackets on.
1868. Good Wds., Xmas No. 6/1. My … neighbour stretched out his hand to help himself to ‘spuds.’
1898. Westm. Gaz., 6 Oct., 7/2. Three-quarters of a pound of meat and a pound of bread are the rations, spuds and pudding being thrown in.
