See Also: sudden(dictionary)
Sudden(medicine)
sudden(dictionary)
Sudden Passion(law)
deafness, sudden(medicine)
sudden death(dictionary)
death, sudden(medicine)
sudden death(medicine)
Sudden death(health)
Sudden Cardiac Death(health)

sudden (iou)



sudden adjective, adverb, & noun. ME.
[Anglo-Norman sodein, sud-, Old & mod. French soudain, from late Latin subitanus alt. of Latin subitaneus, from subitus sudden.]
A. adjective.
1. Happening or coming without warning; unexpected, unforeseen; abrupt, hasty. ME.
J. Buchan The sudden appearance made me start. A. Thwaite On a sudden impulse, he locked a master in a classroom. S. Hood With a sudden switch of subject she enquired what had taken him to Perpignan. R. Alter A fashionable London fop caught by the sudden downpour.
b. Of a turning etc.: abrupt, sharp. LME.
c. Of an object: appearing or discovered unexpectedly. Now arch. & poet. LME.
Which? Sudden, grey rocks jut from cropped grass.
2. Acting or done without forethought; impetuous, rash. arch. ME.
Sir W. Scott Neither provoke me to be sudden by any unfit reply.
3. Done or taking place without delay; speedy; immediate; poet. producing an immediate result. obsolete exc. in sudden death below. ME.
J. Cleveland He acquaints the Citizens with the Kings Peril..and requests their sudden assistance. A. C. Swinburne Hast not thou One shaft of all thy sudden seven?
b. (Of a person) quick to act; (of mental faculties) quick, sharp. L16-M18.
c. Of the eye: glancing quickly. L16-M17.
4. Happening soon; shortly to come or to be. LME-M18.
5. Brief, momentary. LME-L16.
6. Done, performed, etc., on the spur of the moment; impromptu. M16-M18.
7. Made, provided, or formed in a short time. arch. L16.
Shakespeare Henry V Never was such a sudden scholar made.
Special collocations: sudden death (a) Sport a means of deciding the winner of a tied game or match, consisting of an extra game, hole played, etc., or an extra period of play ending with the first to score; (b) an unexpected or quick death; (c) US slang a potent alcoholic drink. sudden infant death (syndrome) the phenomenon of sudden and unexpected deaths of apparently healthy infants (abbreviation SIDS) (cf. cot-death s.v. COT noun4).
B. adverb. Suddenly. Chiefly & now only poet. LME.
C. noun.
1. all of a sudden, of a sudden, (arch.) on a sudden, at a sudden, suddenly, unexpectedly. M16.
2. A sudden need, danger, etc.; an emergency. M16-E18.
suddenly adverb ME.
suddenness [-n-n-] noun LME.