thud

Pluralthuds

Formsthuds, thudding, thudded

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A low, heavy sound produced when a soft or weighty object strikes a surface.

   The melon rolled off the counter and landed with a wet thud.

   A series of thuds echoed down the hall as the movers stacked crates.

   Similarthump, bump, clunk, thunk, clonk

   Note

   The word began as a blow rather than a noise. Middle English thudden meant "to strike with a weapon," and it goes back to Old English þyddan, "to strike, press, thrust." The sense of sound grew out of that striking. In use it nearly always takes an adjective or arrives through a verb of landing or hearing: a dull thud, landed with a thud. The phrase with a thud is its most natural home.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A hard, dull collision in which one body strikes another with force.

   The boxer absorbed the thud of the heavy bag against his gloves.

   Repeated thuds from the loose engine mount cracked the casing.

   Similarthump, impact, blow, bump, bang

   Note

   Here the word names the blow itself, not the noise it makes. The useful test is the verb around it. A thud you felt, like the thud of the pistol on his left cheek, belongs here, while a thud you heard belongs to the sound of an impact. In practice the two often blur, since most heavy blows are both felt and heard.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To produce a low, heavy sound on striking a surface.

   Ripe apples thud against the orchard grass throughout the autumn harvest.

   The sandbags thudded onto the deck one after another.

   Similarthump, bump, clunk, thunk

   Note

   Always intransitive, it needs a preposition to say where the impact lands: arrows thudded into a carcass, a tail thudded on a sanded floor, sandbags thud onto a deck. The final d doubles before -ed and -ing, giving thudded and thudding. Its subject is the thing that strikes, never the person who sends it, so the arrows thud, not the archer.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A slower, dull impact spread across a wide surface area, felt as deep pressure rather than a sharp, biting sensation.

   Like the difference between being pressed by a weighted cushion and flicked by a thin switch.

   The heavy leather paddle delivers a thud that resonates deep in the muscle.

   Players who enjoy thud often choose floggers with broad, weighty falls.

   Oppositesting

   Note

   Impact players use the word as a category of sensation, set against sting: a pillowcase is "almost all thud and very little sting." In this use it often drops the article, like a mass noun, as when someone enjoys thud. Broad, heavy surfaces produce it. A flogger whose strands land together gives thud, while separate tails sting. Without that contrast in view, a general reader may miss what is meant.

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