Orig. Sc. [Occurs, with the corresp. sb., c. 1513. Identity with the earlier THUD v.1 is doubtful: formally it is quite possible; but there is a gap both of time and sense between the examples of the two. The present vb. and sb. may be purely echoic, imitating the sound which they express or imply; if historically connected with THUD v.1, the vb. has changed its meaning under echoic influence, and a sb. of corresponding echoic meaning has arisen.]
1. intr. To come with a blast or gust, as the wind; sometimes including the notion of sound. Sc.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. vi. 136. As the blastis with thar bustuus sovn … cumis thuddand doun On the deip sey Egean.
a. 1584. Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 237. Throw cluddis so he thuddis so, And flew I wist not quhair.
1721. Ramsay, Ode to Ph—, vi. Then upo’ sight the hailstains thud.
1796. Macneill, Waes o’ War, I. xii. Loud and sair the cauld winds thud.
b. trans. in causal sense: To drive in blasts. Sc.
1728. Ramsay, Answer Ep. fr. Mr. Somerville, 59. Boreas nae mair thuds Hail, snaw, and sleet, frae blacken’d clouds.
2. intr. To produce a thud or dull heavy sound, as a falling or moving body by striking against something; to fall or impinge with a thud; also said of the body or surface struck.
1796, 1833. [see thudding below].
1859. L. Oliphant, Earl Elgin’s Mission to China, I. 127. Feeble rockets, barbed as arrows, thudded about and fizzed for a moment in the grass.
1862. Sala, Seven Sons, III. v. 120. The carriage came thudding by on the soft turf.
1885. Tennyson, Balin & Balan, 316. He felt the hollow-beaten mosses thud And tremble.
1893. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 247/1. They heard his feet thudding upon the stairs.
1908. H. Wales, Old Allegiance, xvii. 305. A bullet thudded into the wall above me.
b. trans. To strike (something) so as to produce a thud.
1899. J. Lumsden, Edin. Poems & Songs, 259. Blow all your trumps! thud all your drums!
Hence Thudding vbl. sb. and ppl. a. (whence Thuddingly adv.); all from sense 2.
1796. A. Wilson, in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876), II. 66. Cease, thou flighterin’ thuddin’ heart.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, i. (1859), 29. A puff of white smoak, then another,… followed by thudding reports.
1901. Lawson, Remin. Dollar Acad., 87. A brilliant peroration accompanied by a thudding on the pulpit.
1904. Marie Corelli, God’s Gd. Man, x. The quick gallop of hoofs echoed thuddingly on the velvety turf.
