thud

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   strike with a dull sound

   Bullets were thudding against the wall.

2. 2
   verb

   make a dull sound

   The knocker thudded against the front door.

3. 3
   noun

   The sound of a dull impact.

   These were but the thoughts of a second, but the voices were nearer, and I heard a dull thud far up the passage, and knew that a man had jumped down from the churchyard into the hole.

4. 4
   noun

   A hard, dull impact.

   Sinclair told the B.A.R. [Bay Area Reporter] he felt the thud of the pistol on his left cheek about a 100 feet from his car, […].

From Middle English thudden (“to strike with a weapon”), from Old English þyddan (“to strike, press, thrust”), from Proto-Germanic *þuddijaną, *þiudijaną (“to strike, thrust”), from Proto-Germanic *þūhaną, *þeuhaną (“to press”), from Proto-Indo-European *tūk- (“to beat”). Cognate with Old English þoddettan (“to strike, push, batter”), Old English þȳdan (“to strike, stab, thrust, press”), Old English þēowan (“to press”), Albanian thundër (“a hoof, talon, a shaft", figuratively, "oppression, torment”).

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