noun
cud
KUD/kʌd/
Partly digested food brought back to the mouth by animals such as cows to be chewed again.
The cow returns partly digested food to its mouth as cud.
Etymology
Old English cudu already meant food brought back up for chewing, but also meant gum, resin, or mastic. The modern sense preserves the animal-feeding meaning.
In context
This female is chewing the cud. She's grinding leaves with her teeth, adding enzymes all the time from her saliva. Then she swallows. and then regurgitates the food so she can chew it some more.
More examples
- The animal brought up cud for further chewing.
- A small amount of cud moved in the cow’s mouth.
- The herd rested while chewing cud.
Forms
cud
Similar words
- food
- Food is general; cud is partly digested material returned to the mouth for rechewing.
- bolus
- A bolus is a mass of swallowed or chewed material; cud specifically returns from the stomach.