n.1 a any of various sweet cooked dishes (plum pudding; rice pudding). b a savoury dish containing flour, suet, etc. (Yorkshire pudding; steak and kidney pudding). c the sweet course of a meal. d the intestines of a pig etc. stuffed with oatmeal, spices, blood, etc. (black pudding).
2 colloq. a person or thing resembling a pudding.
3 (Naut. puddening) a pad or tow binding to prevent chafing etc.
Phrases and idioms:
in the pudding club sl. pregnant. pudding-cloth a cloth used for tying up some puddings for boiling. pudding face colloq. a large fat face. pudding-head colloq. a stupid person. pudding-stone a conglomerate rock consisting of rounded pebbles in a siliceous matrix.
Derivatives:
puddingy adj.
Etymology: ME poding f. OF boudin black pudding ult. f. L botellus sausage: see BOWEL