sod

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sɒd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sɑd/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /sɔd/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɒd
• Homophone: sawed (cot–caught merger)

From Middle English sod, sodde first attested in the mid-15th century, from Middle Dutch zoden (“turf”) or Middle Low German sôde, soede (“turf”), both related to Dutch zode (“turf”), German Sode (“turf”), Old Frisian sātha (“sod”), all being of uncertain ultimate origin.

sod (plural sods)

1. (uncountable) The stratum of the surface of the soil which is filled with the roots of grass, or any portion of that surface; turf; sward.
   • 1746, William Collins, Ode written in the year 1746:

     She there shall dress a sweeter sod / Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.

2. (uncountable) Turf grown and cut specifically for the establishment of lawns.

   The landscapers rolled sod onto the bare earth and made a presentable lawn by nightfall.

3. (countable) A piece of this.
   • 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 338:

     In Walachia, green sods are laid on the window-sills and on the lintels of the doors to avert the uncanny crew [i.e. witches].

• soddie
• sodless

sod (third-person singular simple present sods, present participle sodding, simple past and past participle sodded)

1. To cover with sod.

   He sodded the worn areas twice a year.

   • 2006, Paul Vela, Sealed with a Kiss, page 97:

     The innermore walls were sod inlayed with roots from trees, plants and weeds.

Clipping of sodomite or sodomize.

sod (plural sods)

1. (UK, Ireland, vulgar, dated) Sodomite; bugger.
   • 1998, Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet, Virago (2018), page 207:

     The Empire, in particular, was always thick with sods: they strolled side-by-side with the gay girls of the promenade, or stood, in little knots, exchanging gossip, comparing fortunes, greeting one another with flapping hands and high, extravagant voices.

2. (UK, Ireland, slang, mildly derogatory, formerly considered vulgar) A person; often qualified with an adjective.

   You mean old sod!

   poor sod

   unlucky sod

   You silly sod.

3. (UK, Ireland, mildly vulgar) Any trifling amount, a bugger, a damn, a jot.

   I don’t care a sod.

sod

1. (UK, Ireland, vulgar) expression of surprise, contempt, outrage, disgust, boredom, frustration.

sod (third-person singular simple present sods, present participle sodding, simple past and past participle sodded)

1. (transitive, UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar) Bugger; sodomize.
2. (transitive, UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar) Damn, curse, confound.

   Sod him!, Sod it!, Sod that bastard!

From the Old English plural past tense, or a back-formation from the past participle sodden.

sod

1. (obsolete) simple past of seethe
   • 1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Genesis xxv:[29], folio xxxiiij, verso:

     Iacob ſod potage ⁊ Eſau came from the feld ⁊ was faine […]

sod (comparative more sod, superlative most sod)

1. (obsolete) Boiled.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , New York, 2001, p.223:

     Beer, if it be over-new, or over-stale, over-strong, or not sod, […] is most unwholesome, frets, and galls, etc.

2. (Australia, of bread) Sodden; incompletely risen.

   sod damper

sod (plural sods)

1. (Australia, colloquial) A damper (bread) which has failed to rise, remaining a flat lump.
   • 1954, Tom Ronan, Vision Splendid; quoted in Tom Burton, Words in Your Ear, Wakefield Press, 1999, →ISBN, page 120:

     And Mart the cook the shovel took / And swung the damper to and fro. / 'Another sod, so help me God, / That's fourteen in a flamin' row.

sod (plural sods)

1. The rock dove.

• ods, OD's, ODS, DoS, dso, OS&D, 'dos, DOS, OSD, ODs, dos, do's, SDO, DSO

sod m

1. imbecile

From Old Norse sót (“soot”).

• IPA^(key): /soːd/, [soðˀ]
• Rhymes: -oð

sod c (singular definite soden, not used in plural form)

1. soot

sod

1. imperative of sode

Borrowed from Italian sodo, from Latin solidus. Doublet of solidu.

• IPA^(key): /sɔːt/

sod (feminine singular soda, plural sodi)

1. firm; steadfast

From Old Norse soð. Doublet of sodd.

sod n (definite singular sodet, indefinite plural sod, definite plural soda)

1. boiling, bubbling
2. broth
3. meat soup

• “sod” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-Slavic *sǫdъ.

• IPA^(key): /sóːt/

sọ̑d m inan

1. barrel

• “sod”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2025

Borrowed from Arabic صَاد (ṣād).

sod (plural sodlar)

1. the Arabic letter ص

sod (nominative plural sods)

1. sauce