different between scud vs wisp

English

Alternative forms

• skud (dialectal sense only)

Etymology

Perhaps from Old Norse skjóta (“to throw, to shoot”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk?d/
• Rhymes: -?d

Adjective

scud (comparative more scud, superlative most scud)

1. (slang, Scotland) Naked.

Verb

scud (third-person singular simple present scuds, present participle scudding, simple past and past participle scudded)

1. (intransitive) To race along swiftly (especially used of clouds).
   • 1799, William Wordsworth,The Two-Part Prelude, Book I:

     When scudding on from snare to snare I plied

     My anxious visitation, hurrying on,

     Still hurrying hurrying onward ...

   • 1807 Walter Scott, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. 4, "Cadyow Castle":

     From the thick copse the roebucks bound,

     The startled red-deer scuds the plain […]

   • 1844, Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby, or the New Generation, Chapter XVI:

     The wind was high; the vast white clouds scudded over the blue heaven […]

   • 1920, Peter B. Kyne, The Understanding Heart, Chapter II:

     During the preceding afternoon a heavy North Pacific fog had blown in […] Scudding eastward from the ocean, it had crept up and over the redwood-studded crests of the Coast Range mountains, […]

2. (transitive, intransitive, nautical) To run, or be driven, before a high wind with no sails set.
3. (Northumbria) To hit or slap.
4. (Northumbria) To speed.
5. (Northumbria) To skim flat stones so they skip along the water.

Translations

References

• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, ?ISBN
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “scud”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Noun

scud (countable and uncountable, plural scuds)

1. The act of scudding.
2. Clouds or rain driven by the wind.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:

     But high above the flying scud and dark-rolling clouds, there floated a little isle of sunlight, from which beamed forth an angel's face […]

3. (uncountable) A loose formation of small ragged cloud fragments (or fog) not attached to a larger higher cloud layer.
   • 2004, US National Weather Service Glossary:

     Small, ragged, low cloud fragments that are unattached to a larger cloud base and often seen with and behind cold fronts and thunderstorm gust fronts. Such clouds generally are associated with cool moist air, such as thunderstorm outflow.

4. A gust of wind.
5. (Bristol) A scab on a wound.
6. A small flight of larks, or other birds, less than a flock.
7. Any swimming amphipod.
8. A swift runner.
9. A form of garden hoe.
10. A slap; a sharp stroke.
11. (slang, uncountable, Scotland) Pornography.
12. (slang, uncountable, Scotland) The drink Irn-Bru.

    a bottle of scud

Derived terms

• scud run

Synonyms

• (cloud): pannus or fractus

Translations

Anagrams

• CDUs, UCSD, cuds

English

Etymology

From Middle English wispe, wyspe, wips, wipse, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *wisp, *wips. Cognate with West Frisian wisp, Dutch wisp (“bundle of hay or straw”), Norwegian bokmål/Swedish/Bornholm Danish visp (“handful or bundle of grass, hay, etc.”). Akin also to Middle Dutch/Middle Low German wispel (“measure of grain”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /w?sp/
• Rhymes: -?sp

Noun

wisp (countable and uncountable, plural wisps)

1. A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance; any slender, flexible structure or group.

   A wisp of smoke rose from the candle for a few moments after he blew it out.

   A wisp of hair escaped her barrette and whipped wildly in the wind.

   • in a small basket, on a wisp of hay

2. A whisk, or small broom.
3. A will o' the wisp, or ignis fatuus.

   • the wisp that flickers where no foot can tread

4. An immeasurable, indefinable essence of life; soul.
5. (uncountable) A disease affecting the feet of cattle.

Derived terms

• will o' the wisp

Translations

Verb

wisp (third-person singular simple present wisps, present participle wisping, simple past and past participle wisped)

1. (transitive) To brush or dress, as with a wisp.
2. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) To rumple.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

3. (intransitive) To produce a wisp, as of smoke.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Library of America, 1985, p.70:

     To Temple, sitting in the cottonseed-hulls and the corn-cobs, the sound was no louder than the striking of a match: a short, minor sound shutting down the scene, the instant, with a profound finality, completely isolating it, and she sat there, her legs straight before her, her hands limp and palm-up on her lap, looking at Popeye's tight back and the ridges of his coat across his shoulders as he leaned out the door, the pistol behind him, against his flank, wisping thinly along his leg.

4. (transitive) To emit in wisps.
   • 2011, Iain Lawrence, The Winter Pony (page 219)

     It looked warm and rosy-bright inside, with a little chimney wisping smoke, little windows glowing.

Anagrams

• PWIs, WIPs

Middle English

Noun

wisp

1. Alternative form of wyspe

Westrobothnian

Verb

wîsp (preterite wisp?, middle wisp?s, passive val wisp?)

1. (transitive) to wag, wave

   wîsp bårt knortn

   wave away mosquitoes

   marra wîsp romp?n

   the mare swishes its tail

Derived terms

• wisput