duds

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   informal, plural: clothes, especially ordinary, rough, or distinctive clothes

   He changed into his best duds before going into town.

2. 2
   noun

   dated, plural: a person's portable belongings

   They boxed up their duds and left before sunrise.

The clothing sense is the lexicalized plural of dud, from Middle English dudde, 'cloak or coarse garment.' Duds meant ragged clothing by the sixteenth century and later broadened to clothes or personal belongings; this history predates the modern singular dud meaning a failure.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images