Heading
O. E. dudde = cloth. Duddery = a clothiers' booth (De Foe's Tour of Gt. Brit., p. 125).] In America applied to any kind of portable property (Cf., quots., 1622, 1780, and 1884). To angle for duds, see Anglers; To sweat duds = to pawn {see Sweat).
1440. Prompt. Parv., ed. Way, i, 134. Dudde, cloth.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 86. When we byng back to the deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). Dudes, clothes.
1622. Head and Kirkman, English Rogue. 'Canting Song.' For all your duds [goods] are binged avast.
1780. R. Tomlinson, Slang Pastoral, IX. No duds in my pocket, no sea-coal to burn.
1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary. Dudds, rags. Also clothes.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial, p. 20. Doubled him up, like a bag of old duds!
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. v. A ragged rascal, every dud upon whose back was bidding good-day to the other.
1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen String Jack, ii. 3. Crissy, odsbuds! I'll on with my duds.
1871. New York Tribune, 23 Jan. The three [railway] Commissioners, in whose appointment you had no choice, decide that you must get out, leave your house, bundle out your duds, and be off.
1881. A Trollope, Marian Fay, ch. iii. To see her children washed and put in and out of their duds was perhaps the greatest pleasure of her life.
1884. Athenæum, 19 July, p. 74, col. 2. A writer in 1784 [in Gent. Mag., Gomme, vol. II.] says, for instance, that duds signifies rags, tatters, and that it comes from the Celtic. We do not believe in the derivation, but will not at present endeavour to refute it; we are sure the meaning is given wrongly, though it has the authority of Halliwell and Wedgwood in recent times. Duds, in the northern dialects means small things, or things of little account, whether articles of clothing, trade, or merchandise. We have frequently heard the word applied to work-*men's tools; and in an unprinted church-*warden's account of an eastern shire we find in the year 1501 mention of 'clocke-dudes.' From the context it is evident that the small wheels belonging to the town clock are meant.
Dudsman.—See Dudder.
Dues, subs. (old).—Money. To
tip the dues = to pay; to
hand over a share. For synonyms,
see Actual and Gilt.
[A colloquial extension of due =
toll, tribute, fee, etc.]
1812. Vaux, Flash Dict. So a thief, requiring his share of booty from his palls, will desire them to bring the dues to light.
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 13. Will he come down with the dues.
Duff, verb (thieves').—1. Specifically,
to sell flashy goods as
pretended contraband or stolen;
hence to cheat. Duffers, or
Men at the duff = pedlars of
flash. (Cf., Dudder). Duffing
= the practice; used as an adjective
= spurious.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 158. 'The Duff' [smuggled goods, so named and described in.]
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Duffers: cheats who pretend to deal in smuggled goods, stopping all country people, or such as they think they can impose on; which they frequently do, by selling them Spital-fields goods at double their current price.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 23. They have been regularly 'duffed' out of the streets, so much cheap rubbish is made to sell.
1888. G. R. Sims, in Cass. Sat. Journal, 31 March, p. 7. The man at the duff palms off false jewellery as real.
2. (common).—To rub up the nap of old clothes so as to make them look almost as good as new.
