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Webster 1913 Edition

Dude

Dude

,
Noun.
A kind of dandy; especially, one characterized by an ultrafashionable style of dress and other affectations.
[Recent]
The social
dude
who affects English dress and English drawl.
The American.

Definition 2024

dude

dude

See also: dudé and dudë

English

Alternative forms

  • dood (nonstandard)
  • dewd (nonstandard)
  • d00d (Internet slang)

Noun

dude ‎(plural dudes)

  1. (colloquial) A man, generally a younger man.
    So we were at the mall and these two dudes just walk up to us and say "hi".‎
  2. (colloquial, used in the vocative) A term of address for a teenager or young man, particularly when cautioning him or offering him advice.
    Dude, I'd be careful around the principal, he's having a bad day.‎
    Watch it, dude – you almost knocked me over.‎
  3. An inexperienced cowboy.
  4. (slang) A tourist.
  5. (archaic) A man who is very concerned about his dress and appearance; a dandy, a fop.

Synonyms

  • (man): bloke (British, Australia, New Zealand slang (mainly in Southland)), chap (dated British), cove (dated British), guy
  • (term of address for a man): mate (British, Australia)
  • (man concerned about his appearance): dandy, fop, masher
  • See also Wikisaurus:man

Translations

Derived terms

Interjection

dude

  1. (slang) A term of address, usually for a man, conveying awe, excitement, surprise, etc.
    Dude! You finally called!‎

Verb

dude ‎(third-person singular simple present dudes, present participle duding, simple past and past participle duded)

  1. To address someone as dude.

References

  1. ↑ Barry Popik; Gerald Cohen (October–November 2013) Comments on Etymology, volume 23, issue 1; see Allan Metcalf (21 October 2013), “Dude!”, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  2. ↑ “dude” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
  3. ↑ “dude” in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Online.
  4. ↑ “dude” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).
  5. ↑ Richard Hill (1994), “You’ve Come a Long Way, Dude—A History”, in American Speech, issue 69, pages 321–327, cited in Scott F[abius] Kiesling (2004), “Dude”, in American Speech, volume 79, issue 3.

Asturian

Verb

dude

  1. first-person singular present subjunctive of dudar
  2. third-person singular present subjunctive of dudar

Middle English

Verb

dude

  1. did

Slovene

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈdùːdɛ/, /ˈdúːdɛ/
  • Tonal orthography: dúde, dȗde

Noun

dúde f pl ‎(genitive dúd, plurale tantum)

  1. bagpipes (musical instrument)

Declension

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈd̪u.ð̞e̞]

Verb

dude

  1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of dudar.
  2. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of dudar.
  3. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of dudar.

Etymology

Origin uncertain, though likely derived from doodle ‎(“fool, simpleton, mindless person”), perhaps with reference to the fashionable “Yankee Doodle dandy” in the 18th-century lyrics of the song “Yankee Doodle”;[1] the word is first attested in 1883[2][3] as a New York City slang term of contempt for a “fastidious man, fop”.[4]

It has also been suggested that the word is derived from dudes (“old rags”; compare duds) and dudesman ‎(“scarecrow”),[5] or possibly related to dawdle; to German Low German Dudeldop, Dudendop ‎(“fool, dunce”), from Middle Low German dudendop ‎(“cuckold; simpleton”); or to Saterland Frisian Duddigegen ‎(“idiot”).

Pronunciation

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