Literary notes about scud (AI summary)
The word "scud" in literature often evokes the image of rapid, unrestrained movement, frequently within nautical and meteorological contexts. In many works, it is used to describe swift motion propelled by the wind, as in the billowing clouds sweeping over landscapes or ships dashing through rough seas ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, its usage stretches into character portrayal, where it can serve as both a verb for hurrying and a playful moniker for someone noted for their fleetness or liveliness ([4], [5], [6], [7]). Whether painting the dramatic passage of storm-tossed clouds or lending a spirited quality to a narrative, "scud" enriches the text with vivid, kinetic energy ([8], [9], [10]).
- So, in a gale, the but half baffled Channel billows only recoil from the base of the Eddystone, triumphantly to overleap its summit with their scud.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville - Meanwhile the driving scud, rack, and mist, grew darker with the shadows of night; no sign of the ship could be seen.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville - Loftiest trucks were made for wildest winds, and this brain-truck of mine now sails amid the cloud-scud.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville - “Here, here's Scud East—you'll be tossed, won't you, young un?”
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes - “I say,” said East, as soon as he got his wind, looking with much increased respect at Tom, “you ain't a bad scud, not by no means.
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes - Scud was East's nickname, or Black, as we called it, gained by his fleetness of foot.
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes - That's the only thing after all that'll wash, ain't it, old Scud?
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes - Then, moving their wings rapidly, they scud, scud along until they reach the open sea; if a shower of lead does not knock them into the water.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - “It looks almost wild enough for a cyclone,” she said, gazing up at the rapid scud of gray, shell-like clouds.
— from The Shoulders of Atlas: A Novel by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman - The sun shone bright as long as it was up, only that a scud of black clouds was ever and anon driving across it.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana
