sb. pl. Forms: 6 sudes, 6–7 suddes, 7–8 sudds, 6– suds. Also sing. sud (7 sudd). [Of uncertain etymology.
With the existing evidence it is difficult to establish the chronology of the senses. Sense 2 is perhaps the original: in which case the immediate source may be MLG., MDu. sudde (WFris. sodde), or MDu. sudse, in Kilian zudse (WFris. sodze) marsh, bog.]
† 1. Dregs, leavings; hence, filth, muck. Also fig. or in fig. context. Obs.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par., Pref. 2 b. He had so infected the clere fountaine of Goddes woorde with the suddes of humain tradicions.
1563. Mirr. Mag., Rivers, iv. Oft causyng good to be reported yll, Or dround in suddes of Lethes muddy swyll.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, xxxv. 93. Perchance the fight … Amasde your mynde, and for a whyle did draw Your noble eyes, to settle on such suddes.
1581. Lanc. & Cheshire Wills (Chetham Soc.), II. 3. I geue and bequeath vnto James hamer my song all the dust and sudes towardes the keepinge of a swine.
1594. Manch. Crt. Leet Rec. (1885), II. 90. That Roberte Marshall shall not cast any suddes or bludye water one … his backside.
1596. Norden, Progr. Pietie (1847), 178. The dangerous estate of thy church, which is much pestered and infected with the suds of error.
1609. J. Davies, Hum. Heaven on Earth, clix. Wks. (Grosart), I. 21/1. Swimming in Suddes of all sordiditie.
1622. Donne, Serm., John i. 8 (1649), II. 344. Those that lye in the suddes of nature.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., II. iii. The basc Suds which Vice useth to leave behind it.
† 2. Flood-water; the water of the fens; water mixed with drift-sand and mud; drift-sand left by a flood. Also transf. (quot. 1599). Obs.
The authors here quoted belong to E. Anglia.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. 1905, III. 196. Leander … when hee sprawled through the brackish suddes to scale her [sc. Hero’s] tower.
1621. Quarles, Esther, Wks. (Grosart), II. 63/2. [God’s] lesser breath … can drowne The spacious Vniuerse in suds of Clay.
1629. H. C., Disc. conc. Drayning Fennes, B. To be surrounded, or to lye in the suds, as we say, three quarters or halfe a yeere … doth mischiefe … the ground.
1635. Quarles, Embl., IV. i. Wks. (Grosart), III. 79/1. Thus am I driven upon these slipp’ry suds,… My life’s a troubled sea, compos’d of Ebs and Flouds.
1851. T. Sternberg, Dial. Northants., 109. Suds, floods. Water mixed with sand and mud; formerly applied to the water of the fens.
3. a. Water impregnated with soap for washing, esp. when hot. b. The frothy mass that collects on the top of soapy water in which things are washed; in early use esp. a barber’s lather. (More fully SOAP-SUDS.) Also in fig. and allusive use (cf. sense 5).
1581. Pettie, trans. Guazzo’s Civ. Conv. (1586), I. 41 b. Hee which washeth his mouth with his owne praise, soyleth himselfe with the suddes that come of it.
1593. G. Harvey, New Letter, Wks. (Grosart), I. 281. I haue some suddes of my mother witt, to sowse such a Dish clowte in.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 34. Maister Barnabe Googe will haue all the suddes of his landery conueied thereon.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, 16. Thou that hast made so manie men winke whyles thou cast suds in their eyes.
1606. Dekker, Seuen Deadly Sinnes, Wks. (Grosart), II. 62. Barbers … throwing all their Suddes out of their learned Latin Basons into my face.
1606. Marston, Fawne, IV. i. Alas my miserable maister, what suds art thou washt into?
1611–. [see SOAP-SUDS].
1612. Webster, White Devil, V. iii. She simpers like the suds A collier hath been wash’d in.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 98/2. Beating the Soap and Water together, to make it rise to a Froth, which they [sc. Laundresses] call Suds.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, VIII. iv. The shaver was very tedious in preparing his suds.
a. 1756. Eliza Haywood, New Present (1771), 268. Let them be washed in strong clear suds.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxix. He lathered him bountifully. Mr. Bailey smiled through the suds.
1873. Browning, Red Cott. Nt.-cap, 1576. The brilliant bubble burst in suds!
1887. Meredith, Young Reynard, i. Poet. Wks. (1912), 286. Light as a bubble that flies from the tub, Whisked by the laundry-wife out of her suds.
a. 1893. W. Burns Thomson, Remin. (1895), 33. She stroked the suds off her hands and arms.
c. sing. A soap solution.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 129. It [sc. the grease of the fleece] serves to facilitate the scouring of wool by means of water alone, with which it forms a kind of sud or emulsion.
1884. W. S. B. McLaren, Spinning (ed. 2), 32. A moderately good washing in a warm sud, with a neutral soap.
4. Foam, froth. Also sing.
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier, D iv b. They lookte like foure blowne bladders … washt ouer with the suds of an old stale die.
1607. Middleton, Fam. Love, III. ii. Like the suds of an ale-fat or a washing-bowl.
1906. F. S. Oliver, Alex. Hamilton, IV. ii. 279. Opinions which never at any point touched a firm bottom, but merely swam like a kind of ‘sud’ upon the stream of expediency.
1913. J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough, Balder, II. 231. While one medicine-man whirls a bull-roarer, another whips up a mixture of water and meal into frothy suds symbolic of clouds.
b. Whaling. The foam churned up by a wounded whale.
1850. Scoresby, Cheever’s Whalem. Adv., xii. (1858), 164. Let us be up among the suds.
c. U.S. slang. An inferior kind of beer.
1907. Daily Chron., 16 May, 6/7. A ‘tub of suds,’ the name for a glass of low quality beer.
5. In the suds († in suds, in the sud): chiefly in to lie or be in the suds; to lay, leave in the suds.
a. In difficulties, in embarrassment or perplexity. Obs. or slang.
c. 1572. Gascoigne, Posies, Fruites Warre, Wks. 1907, I. 161. He … sought with victuall to supplie, Poore Myddleburgh which then in suddes did lie.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 426. Whilest Scodra thus lay in the suds.
1617. in Crt. & Times Jas. I. (1848), I. 468. The Lord Coke is left in the suds.
1653. H. More, Conject. Cabbal. (1713), 230. After the hurry of his inordinate pleasures and passion, when he was for a time left in the suds, as they call it.
1730. Swift, Death & Daphne, Misc. 1735, V. 109. Away the frighted Spectre scuds And leaves my Lady in the Suds.
1775. S. J. Pratt, Liberal Opin., cxxxiv. (1783), IV. 216. This proves, logicè, that you are in the suds; which is, Anglicè, being interpreted, that you will be hanged.
a. 1800. Jolly Beggar, xii. in Child, Ballads, V. 114/2. When that some have got their wills They’l leave you in the suds.
† b. Undone; done for; in disgrace. Similarly, into the suds. Obs.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xxiv. 222. The glory of the Spaniards laid in the suds.
1613. Fletcher, etc., Captain, III. vi. I’le fuddle him Or lye ’ith sudd [2nd Fol. suds].
1631. [Mabbe], Celestina, xxi. 197. Our solace is in the suds! our joy is turn’d into annoy!
1632. Massinger, Maid of Hon., I. ii. Look not with too much contemplation on me; If you do, you are in the suds.
1633. Rowley, Match at Midnight, V. i. There’s one Iaruis, a rope on him has juggled me into the sudds too.
c. In the sulks; in the blues. dial.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Vilain, Being in the suds, or sullens.
1631. R. H., Arraignm. Whole Creature, xvi. 280. So long he is sicke in the suds, and diseas’d in the sullens.
1807. R. Anderson, Cumbld. Ball., 139. Some lasses thought lang to the weddin—Unax’d, others sat i’ the suds.
1840. Lady C. Bury, Hist. of Flirt, xxv. Mary does not look very well, and you are in the suds.
† d. In an unfinished state or condition. Obs.
a. 1592. Greene, Orpharion, Wks. (Grosart), XII. 7. It hath line this twelve months in the suds. Now at last it is crept forth in the Spring.
1615–20. C. More, Sir T. More (c. 1627), 242. Some [actions-at-law] lye in the suddes by the space of diuerse yeares.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xvi. 319. Who so trimly dispatch’d his businesse, that he left it in the suddes.
e. † (a) Being lathered. Obs. (b) Being washed, ‘in the wash.’
c. 1626. Dick of Devon., II. i., in Bullen, O. Pl. (1883), II. 29. We may hap to be in the suddes ourselves.
c. 1640. [Shirley], Capt. Underwit, I. Ibid., 327. I thought you by the wide lynnen about your neck have been under correction in the suds, sir.
1766. Smollett, Trav., v. Wks. (1841), 699/1. Captain B——… with the napkin under his chin, was no bad representation of Sancho Panza in the suds.
1788. Times, 1 Jan. Though his Lordship has been so long in the suds, it is not thought that shaving will take place till the day of Judgment.
1863. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, xvii. Thy best shirt is in t’ suds, and no time for t’ starch and iron it.
† f. Slightly intoxicated, fuddled. Obs.
1770. Gentl. Mag., XL. 559. He is said to be … a little in the suds.
6. attrib. and Comb.: sud-dish, a barber’s soap-dish; † suds-monger contemptuous, a barber; suds-tub, a washing-tub.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Feb., 3/1. His shop … is still to be seen with … its emblematic *sud-dish hanging in front.
1638. Ford, Fancies, I. ii. A dry shaver, a copper-bason’d *suds-monger.
1805. Spirit Publ. Jrnls., IX. 113. Poor Mungo came out of the *suds tub no whiter than when soused in!
