Orig. Sc. Also 6 thuid, thude. [Appears c. 1513 along with THUD v.2, q.v.]
1. A blast of wind or tempest; a gust; a squall. (In later quots. including the notion of sound.) Sc.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. i. 80. Aiax breist persit … Scho [Pallas] with a thuid [L. turbine] stikkit on ane scharp roike [= rock].
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), II. 52. Quhen haistilie come sic ane thud of wind, that sail, mast, and taikillis wer blawin in the brim seis.
1606. trans. Rollock’s Lect. 1 Thess. 121 (Jam.). All this worlde is full of tentations: the diuell blowes,… raising a storme: it is a stormie world, and all the thuds light on the sillie creature.
1724. Ramsay, Vision, ii. The air grew ruch with bousteous thuds.
1825. Jamieson, s.v., ‘The wind comes in thuds’ when it comes in gusts; and especially when it strikes on any body that conveys the sound, as a door, &c.
1858. M. Porteous, Souter Johnny, 30. Wud as tempest thud.
† b. A loud sound, as of a clap of thunder, or the discharge of a cannon. Sc. Obs.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), I. 384. Thair scheildis rave and all thair speiris brak, With sic ane thude evin lyke ane thunder crak.
a. 1586. in Pinkerton, Anc. Scot. Poems (1786), 246. Hir voice sa rank … Most lyik the thundring thuds of canoun din.
1796. Macneill, Waes o’ War, III. x. Loud the din o’ streams fast fa’ing, Strak the ear wi’ thundering thud.
2. A heavy blow; a thump with the fist. Also fig. a severe affliction, a ‘blow.’ Sc. and n. dial.
1787. W. Taylor, Scots Poems, 26 (E.D.D.). Wi’ an etnach cud Than gae her Daddie sic a thud.
1790. Morison, Poems, 151 (Jam.). He cocks his hand, and gi’s his wife a thud.
1806. Cock, Simple Strains (1810), 136 (ibid.). Lusty thuds were dealt about.
1847. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, xix. ‘Noa,’ said Joseph, giving a thud with his prop on the floor.
1876. D. Gilmour, Paisley Weavers, ix. 91. Puir lass, it’s a sair thud to thee.
3. A dull heavy sound without resonance, such as is produced when a heavy stone strikes the ground. (Orig. north. dial.)
1825. Brockett, N. C. Words, Thud, the noise of a fall, a stroke causing a blunt and hollow sound.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, iv. Lisbeth heard the heavy ‘thud’ of a running footstep on the turf.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., x. The thud thud of the eight-oar.
1878. Besant & Rice, Celia’s Arb., xi. The heavy thud of the steam-hammer.
1895. Clive Holland, Jap. Wife (ed. 11), 13. The sound of a mousmé pattering barefoot, her quick, short steps making a gentle thud, thud on the matting.
b. As interjection or adverb: With a thud.
1880. Jefferies, Gt. Estate, 197. We heard an apple fall … thud on the sward.
1890. L. C. D’Oyle, Notches, 71. Bill shot again and the ball went ‘thud!’ into the bear.
