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dude

n. · v.
US //ˈdud// UK //djˈuːd// dude
  1. 1 a man or person (n.)
    B1 Intermediate Informal American English

    an informal word for a man or a guy.

    an informal referent for a male person. In modern urban dialects, it is frequently used as a gender-neutral term for any person.

    Example

    I saw some dude waiting outside your house earlier this morning.

    Example

    The dude sitting at the corner table has been staring at his laptop for three hours without ordering a second coffee.
  2. 2 a friend or term of address (n.)
    B1 Intermediate Informal American English Slang

    a word you use to address a friend or someone you are talking to.

    a vocative used to address a contemporary, typically expressing familiarity or camaraderie.

    Example

    Hey dude, do you want to go to the cinema tonight?

    Example

    Listen, dude, I appreciate the advice, but I think I need to handle this situation on my own terms.
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  1. 3 a dandy or fancy dresser (n.)
    C2 Proficiency Archaic

    a man who cares too much about his clothes and looking perfect.

    a man fastidious about his dress and appearance. This sense is largely historical but survives in the term 'dude ranch'.

    Example

    In the old stories, he was quite the dude, always wearing silk hats.

    Example

    The late nineteenth-century press often mocked the city dude who arrived in the West with pristine boots and no practical skills.
  2. 4 to dress up (v.)
    C1 Advanced Informal American English Slang

    to put on your best or most stylish clothes.

    to dress in an elaborate or stylish manner, typically used with the particle 'up'.

    Example

    He got all duded up for the party in a new suit.

    Example

    They spent the entire afternoon getting duded up for the gala, only to realize they had the wrong date for the event.
Origin

Uncertain, though likely a clipping of doodle (“fool, simpleton, mindless person”), perhaps with reference to the fashionable “Yankee Doodle dandy” in the 18th-century lyrics of the song “Yankee Doodle”; the word is first attested in 1883 as a New York City slang term of contempt for a “fastidious man, fop”. If so, then related to German Low German Dudeldop, Dudendop (“fool, dunce”), Saterland Frisian Duddigegen (“idiot”). It has also been suggested that the word is derived from dudes (“old rags”; compare duds) and dudesman (“scarecrow”), or possibly related to dawdle; It has also been suggested the word derives from the Irish dúid. The common claim that the term derives from (or is) a word for a camel's foreskin (or some other vulgar thing, like a hair on a cow, horse, donkey, or elephant's bottom) is false.

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