Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- the portion of food that a ruminant returns from the first stomach to the mouth to chew a second time.
- Dialect. quid1.
- chew one’s/the cud, Informal. to meditate or ponder; ruminate.
noun
- partially digested food regurgitated from the first stomach of cattle and other ruminants to the mouth for a second chewing
- chew the cud to reflect or think over something
Old English cudu “cud,” earlier cwudu, common Germanic (cf. Old Norse kvaða “resin,” Old High German quiti “glue,” German Kitt “putty”); perhaps from PIE root *gwet- “resin, gum.”
- Food that has been partly digested and brought up from the first stomach to the mouth again for further chewing by ruminants, such as cattle and sheep.
Also, chew over. Ponder over, meditate, as in John tends to chew the cud before he answers, or Let me chew that over and let you know. The first term, first recorded in 1382, transfers the appearance of a patiently ruminating cow to a person deep in thought. The variant was first recorded in 1696.