scudding

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scud

(skŭd)

intr.v. scud·ded, scud·ding, scuds

1. To run or skim along swiftly and easily: dark clouds scudding by.

2. Nautical To run before a gale with little or no sail set.

1. The act of scudding.

a. Wind-driven clouds, mist, or rain.

b. A gust of wind.

c. Ragged low clouds, moving rapidly beneath another cloud layer.

[Possibly from Middle English scut, rabbit, rabbit's tail; see scut¹.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

scudding - the act of moving along swiftly (as before a gale)

scud

hurrying, speeding, speed - changing location rapidly

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Tattered, blue-purple clouds, reddening in the east, were scudding before the wind.

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A rollicking wind was scudding across the harbor and the dunes, whipping the water into white-caps and washing the sandshore with long lines of silvery breakers.

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Swiftly she rose toward the clouds, racing with the scudding streamers of the storm-swept fragments, and a moment later she was swallowed by the dense masses billowing above.