OED Definitions
Nude:
A. adj. (and adv.)
1. Law.
a. Of a statement, promise, etc.: not formally attested or recorded. Now arch. and rare.
1493 in Acts Lords of Council Civil Causes (1839) I. 262/2 t e copy of e said procuratory wes nocht insert in e said instrument bot said of e nud word of e said noter. 1530 tr. C. St. German Dyaloge Doctoure & Student I. xii. f. xxvii, That euery man by a nude parol and by a bare auerment shuld auoyde an oblygacyon. 1530 tr. C. St. German Dyaloge Doctoure & Student II. xxiii. f. lxv, Yf a man seased of landes make a gyfte theorof or graunte by a nude promyse. 1594 W. WEST Symbolæogr.: 2nd Pt. II. Chancerie §37 If by such nude averrments matters of record should be avoided. 1607 J. COWELL Interpreter sig. Vv4a, Kitchin..saith, that nude mater is not of so high nature, as either a mater of Record or a speciality. 1634 Irish Act 10 Charles I Sess. 2. c. 1 Preamble, Wills and testaments..made by nude parolx and words. c1642 Contra-replicant's Compl. 2 The next Art of our Replicant is to impose those his nude averments, which are most false and improbable. ?1659 A. BROME Rec. in Rithme 8 This Said Replication insufficient is, Negative, pregnant, and uncertain, nude, Double, wants forme, and does not conclude Rightly, according to the legal way.
1971 J. R. R. TOLKIEN Let. 8 Jan. (1995) 406 My claim rests really on my ‘nude parole’ or unsupported assertion that I remember the occasion of its invention (by me).
b. Of a contract or pact: lacking consideration and so void unless made by deed; (more generally) unenforceable. Cf. NUDUM PACTUM n.
1530 tr. C. St. German Dyaloge Doctoure & Student II. xxiv. f. lxiiv, A nude contracte ys where a man maketh a bargeyne or a sale of hys goodes or landes without any recompence appoynted for yt. 1658 E. PHILLIPS New World Eng. Words, Nude contract, in Common-law, is a bare contract, or promise of any thing without assigning, or agreeing what another shall give. 1683 R. DIXON Canidia III. xvi. 142 You say a Nude Pact's of no more force than a Lye. And yet I am bound my Gold to bring, As if it were the Word of a King. 1766 W. BLACKSTONE Comm. Laws Eng. II. xxx. 445 Any degree of reciprocity will prevent the pact from being nude. 1875 E. POSTE tr. Instit. Gaius (ed. 2) III. 361 A nude pact creates no (civil) obligation, but creates a defence. 1975 A. W. B. SIMPSON Hist. Common Law Contract 383 The question whether nude pacts were binding was not an enormously important one. 1981 Waterbury (Connecticut) American 23 Jan. 32/1 ‘Nude’ is used in law to indicate, as in ‘nude contract’, that a contract has been made without consideration.
c. Of a person: receiving no profit from supervising a transaction. Esp. in nude executor. Obs.
1590 H. SWINBURNE Briefe Treat. Test. 176 If the testator giue his goods to one person, and make another executor: this executor is called Nude executor, for that he reapeth no commoditie by the testament. 1726 J. AYLIFFE Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 269 A nude Executor here mention'd is no more than an Executor in Trust. 1875 E. POSTE tr. Instit. Gaius (ed. 2) III. 422 Including the nude or nominal proprietor.
2. Open, explicit; mere, plain. Obs.
1551 T. CRANMER Answer S. Gardiner 11 Is therfore the whole vse of the bread..but a naked or nude and bare token? 1581 J. HAMILTON Catholik Traictise f. 26, The Calvinists can not schau..ony place, quhair the vordis..ar tane for nude takins and signis. 1586 J. FERNE Blazon of Gentrie To Innes of Court, sig. Avii, I did alwaies abhor the nude title, and bare skill of a Blazoner, things common to each painter, & tricker of Armes. 1655 H. L'ESTRANGE Reign King Charles 89 Yet this could be..but a nude conjecture. 1667 E. WATERHOUSE Short Narr. Fire London 34 A bare accident and a nude casualty. 1806 W. TAYLOR in J. W. Robberds Mem. W. Taylor (1843) II. 127 In the nude cypherableness of the story and in the omnifariousness of the language.
3. a. Of an object, plant, animal, etc.: naked, bare; lacking natural covering, foliage, etc.; smooth, hairless; (also, of a building, etc.) empty, unadorned.
1656 T. BLOUNT Glossographia, Nude, bare, naked, uncovered; void, empty, destitute; poor. 1794 T. DWIGHT Greenfield Hill IV. 95 Where frown'd the nude rock, and the desert shore, Now pleasure sports, and business want beguiles. 1866 J. LINDLEY & T. MOORE Treasury Bot. 794/2 Nude,..bald from the total absence of hairs, or uncovered in consequence of the absence of any investing organs. 1867 M. E. HERBERT Cradle Lands iii. 85 A nude modern octagonal room. 1879 R. L. STEVENSON Trav. with Donkey (1886) 74 A broad nude valley in Vivarais. 1897 T. C. ALLBUTT Syst. Med. II. 1124 The bladders may..remain entirely nude and free in the peritoneal cavity. 1926 E. O'NEILL Great God Brown I. iii. 46, I am thy shorn, bald, nude sheep! 1964 D. VARADAY Gara-Yaka xii. 102 (caption) Vultures like baubles on a nude tree. 1981 Hi-Fi Ann. & Test '81 81/4 The 30 has a nude fine-line stylus.
b. Of a person or a part of the human body, or its representation in art, etc.: wearing no clothes, naked, bare. Also as adv. Whereas the term naked is generally regarded as a neutral descriptive term, nude is now often used in contexts of suggestive or gratuitous display (see also senses A. 3c and A. 3d).
1830 G. CROLY Paris in 1815 in Poet. Wks. 13 Spot of corruption! where the rabble rude Loiter round tinsel tomes, and figures nude. 1832 S. L. FAIRFIELD Last Night Pompeii ii. 76 Frescoes, picturing the satyr joys..And fountains, with nude naiads twining round The unveiled tritons. 1869 ‘M. TWAIN’ Innocents Abroad xxxiv. 377 The cadaverous, half nude varlets that served in the establishment had nothing of poetry in their appearance. 1880 ‘OUIDA’ Moths I. 73 He was so used to seeing pretty nude feet at Trouville. 1913 E. F. BENSON Thorley Weir i, The nude figure of a boy on the header-board in the act of springing from it into the water. 1937 Dict. Nat. Biogr. at Lady Feodora G. M. Gleichen, The Diana fountain in Rotten Row, Hyde Park, surmounted by a bronze figure of the nude goddess discharging an arrow. 1972 L. DEIGHTON Close-up xx, Her apartment overlooked the Tiber and there was a roof garden where she sunbathed nude. 1991 Time 15 July 74/3 Shake free of the plastic society, hug each other, wear feathers.., jiggle around nude.
c. Of a work of art, form of entertainment, etc.: involving or portraying one or more naked or scantily clad people; performed without clothing. Also of an actor or model: that performs or poses unclothed.
1869 D. N. CAMP Amer. Year-bk. I. 791 Her charms, so freely exhibited on the stage at this time that to her example the successful origin of the nude drama is attributed, were also used as the means of unnumbered conquests. 1874 Atlantic Monthly Nov. 532 We, of the legitimate, who regard the nude drama as a highly demoralizing innovation..went our several ways. 1888 Dict. National Biogr. at Daniel, George, Several extant oil-paintings..are not improbably the work of George himself, as is also the full-length nude study of a nymph. 1959 Listener 15 Jan. 132/3 The night-clubs in Calvin's city put on nude shows. 1974 Publishers Weekly 26 Aug. 250/3 A novel about a nude model who longs for true love. 1982 A. MAUPIN Further Tales of City 81 Some of the boys did an impressive nude water ballet to the music of ‘Tea for Two’. 2000 Country Music People May 30/3 He shouldn't have taken those nude photos, but no matter.
d. Of an activity: carried out without clothes on. Also, of a beach or other place: reserved or designed for nudists.
1884 Overland Monthly July 94/2 No scandal seems to be caused by their habit of nude bathing. 1894 J. RALPH in Harper's Mag. Aug. 341 Nude bathing will not be permitted. 1966 Playboy Dec. 234/2 BB indulges in a nude sun bath amidst a yardful of drying laundry. 1978 K. TYNAN Let. 21 May (1994) viii. 613 Dozens of beaches nearby, including a nude one and several topless. 1986 I. WEDDE Symmes Hole (1988) 78 A nude dash up Grass Street in the dark. 2000 Independent 24 Apr. I. 13/2 Nude beaches were legalised long ago in every state except Queensland.
4. Of a pinkish beige colour; flesh-coloured.
1922 Daily Mail 18 Dec. 2 (advt.) Ladies' Hose... Black, white,..taupe, navy, nude, and all shades. 1926 People's Home Jrnl. Feb. 14/4 One shade of green, for example, adopts black shoes with beige or nude stockings most successfully. 1931 M. DE LA ROCHE Finch's Fortune ix. 156 She had on..‘nude’ stockings. 1973 Philadelphia Inquirer 14 Oct. (Today Suppl.) 17/3 (advt.) Choose black, brown, navy or nude calfskin. 1992 Looks July 34/2 Cindy tends to wear neutral and nude shades of brown to define her features.
5. Med. and Biol. Designating a mouse of a strain homozygous for a mutant gene that produces hypoplasia of the thymus gland with severe T-cell immunodeficiency and apparent hairlessness. Also: designating the mutant gene itself.
1966 S. P. FLANAGAN in Genetical Res. 8 295 The majority of nude mice die of general body weakness within 2 weeks. 1974 Nature 20 Sept. 184/2 Nude mice have spread through the immunological world at a remarkable pace... The thymus abnormality leads to a marked deficiency in thymus-derived (T) lymphocytes and nude mice are rapidly replacing thymectomised mice as models of T cell deprivation and as a source of relatively pure B lymphocytes for in vitro studies. 1988 Mouse News Let. Nov. 9 Eight nude gene congenic strains which have different genetic backgrounds have been developed and are maintained for animal experiments on xenografts (human cancers) in our institute.
B. n.
1. a. Chiefly Art. A painting, sculpture, photograph, etc., of a naked human figure; a figure in such a painting, etc. Also: a naked person.
[1699 M. LISTER Journey to Paris 28 Such [statues] as were made Nudae are miserably disguised.] 1708 E. HATTON New View London II. 824/2 A Nude or Nudity, is a naked Figure painted or sculpted, without Drapery (or Cloathing). 1813 T. DIBDIN Metrical Hist. Eng. II. 258 Our British fair, no longer prudes, Improved to lib'ral minded Nudes. a1849 H. COLERIDGE Ess. & Marginalia (1851) I. 205 Are not the greatest masters almost as much celebrated for their draperies as for their nudes? 1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 9 May 3/2 We went round the Academy noticing the..pictures, and dismissing..a certain number of nudes, babies, and portraits of nobodies. 1922 R. FRY Let. 12 Apr. (1972) II. 525 [Picasso]'s doing wonderful little pictures of nudes..in egg tempera. 1989 M. GIMBUTAS Lang. of Goddess III. xviii. 200 Carved of bone, Stiff Nudes became elongated and quite slender, but they portray the same rigid posture of the Deity. 2002 A. SHELLEY Island in Snow Monkey 4 No. 2. 9 From a little out to sea the visible area of beach is a stage nudes move on.
b. A woman who wears very low-necked dresses. Obs. rare 1.
1810 Spirit of Public Jrnls. XIII. 273 As a link-boy was showing a certain fashionable nude, in Baker Street, out of her carriage [etc.].
2. a. Art. With the: the naked or undraped human figure conceived of as an aesthetic object; the representation of this in art.
1760 D. WEBB Inq. Beauties Painting iv. 51 The result of this habit is evident, when our first artists come to design the nud. 1782 R. CUMBERLAND Anecd. Painters I. 56 Being most in the nude, their crime will in some people's judgment appear their recommendation. 1854 T. MARTIN Correggio III. 65, I love the nude; Garments are nothing but the veils to beauty. 1868 R. BROWNING Ring & Bk. I. I. 4 Modern chalk drawings, studies from the nude. 1887 F. M. CRAWFORD Saracinesca i, The French school had not [yet] demonstrated the startling distinction between the nude and the naked. 1915 W. CATHER Song of Lark I. xvi. 111 Ray found that his brakemen were likely to have what he termed ‘a taste for the nude in art’. 1974 M. AYRTON Midas Consequence VIII. 208 Most of what I do is founded on, or derived from, the nude, the stripped human body, as is most of the good bronze sculpture in this world. 1992 Crafts Mar.-Apr. 19/2 The nude is confronted in life class (and notice it is not called drawing class).
b. in the nude: naked, unclothed. Also in extended use.
1856 E. B. BROWNING Aurora Leigh III. 710 Stands sublimely in the nude, as chaste As Medicean Venus. 1882 Globe 14 Dec. 5/5 They had seen him modelling..from Miss Felden, who stood in the nude as a model. 1891 G. MEREDITH One of our Conquerors III. vi. 112 He was a picture of Guilt in the nude, imploring to be sent into concealment. 1951 S. J. PERELMAN Let. 24 Oct. in Don't tread on Me (1987) 113 A state of frustration comparable to that of a man whose lingam is laid up for repairs only to have Ava Gardner, Jane Russell, and Marilyn Monroe prancing around him in the nude. 1966 A. HIGGINS Langrishe, go Down xxi. 155, I went..across to the plantation, stripped and ran round in the nude. 1995 D. MCLEAN Bunker Man 76 It fanned open on a spread of two women having a water-pistol fight in the nude.
3. Med. and Biol. A nude mouse; the nude gene. Cf. sense A. 5.
1966 S. P. FLANNAGAN in Genetical Res. 8 295 The hairless mutant was formed by Dr. N. R. Grist of the Virus Laboratory, Ruchill Hospital, Glasgow... The name ‘nude’, symbol nu, has been adopted. 1968 Nature 27 Jan. 371/1 (heading) Section of liver of an adult homozygote nude. 1977 P. B. MEDAWAR & J. S. MEDAWAR Life Sci. xiv. 120 The mutant mice known as nudes in which cell-mediated immunity is so gravely impaired that even grafts of human tissues can be accepted are not nearly so susceptible to tumours as the theory of immunological surveillance encourages us to believe. 1987 N. MACLEAN Macmillan Dict. Genetics & Cell Biol. 280/1 Mice homozygous for the gene ‘nude’ are referred to as nu nu.
DERIVATIVES
nudely adv. barely, simply, plainly; in an unclothed or unconcealed state.
a1631 J. DONNE Serm. (1956) VIII. 102 Being crudely, and *nudely taken, not decocted and boyl'd up. 1888 R. KIPLING Early Verse (1986) 391 Crudely, nudely, rudely, rawly, Saying, ‘Take back this Macauley’. 1910 H. JAMES Let. 14 Mar. in H. James & E. Wharton Lett. (1990) iii. 153 Osler ‘examined’ me more thoroughly & nudely than I have ever been examined before. 1973 A. HUNTER Gently French xi. 96 She got out of bed and stood for a moment, nudely glaring.
nudeness n. the state of being naked or unclothed.
1848 T. H. CHIVERS Virginalia (1853) 93 As Winter waits for Spring to come again, And robe her *nudeness in her green array. 1895 Cent. Mag. Aug. 494/2 Whether the nudeness itself outraged his sense of propriety. 1995 A. WARNER Morvern Callar (1996) 192 You watched the holidaymakers in different stages of nudeness move along the promenade.
A. adj. (and adv.)
1. Law.
a. Of a statement, promise, etc.: not formally attested or recorded. Now arch. and rare.
1493 in Acts Lords of Council Civil Causes (1839) I. 262/2 t e copy of e said procuratory wes nocht insert in e said instrument bot said of e nud word of e said noter. 1530 tr. C. St. German Dyaloge Doctoure & Student I. xii. f. xxvii, That euery man by a nude parol and by a bare auerment shuld auoyde an oblygacyon. 1530 tr. C. St. German Dyaloge Doctoure & Student II. xxiii. f. lxv, Yf a man seased of landes make a gyfte theorof or graunte by a nude promyse. 1594 W. WEST Symbolæogr.: 2nd Pt. II. Chancerie §37 If by such nude averrments matters of record should be avoided. 1607 J. COWELL Interpreter sig. Vv4a, Kitchin..saith, that nude mater is not of so high nature, as either a mater of Record or a speciality. 1634 Irish Act 10 Charles I Sess. 2. c. 1 Preamble, Wills and testaments..made by nude parolx and words. c1642 Contra-replicant's Compl. 2 The next Art of our Replicant is to impose those his nude averments, which are most false and improbable. ?1659 A. BROME Rec. in Rithme 8 This Said Replication insufficient is, Negative, pregnant, and uncertain, nude, Double, wants forme, and does not conclude Rightly, according to the legal way.
1971 J. R. R. TOLKIEN Let. 8 Jan. (1995) 406 My claim rests really on my ‘nude parole’ or unsupported assertion that I remember the occasion of its invention (by me).
b. Of a contract or pact: lacking consideration and so void unless made by deed; (more generally) unenforceable. Cf. NUDUM PACTUM n.
1530 tr. C. St. German Dyaloge Doctoure & Student II. xxiv. f. lxiiv, A nude contracte ys where a man maketh a bargeyne or a sale of hys goodes or landes without any recompence appoynted for yt. 1658 E. PHILLIPS New World Eng. Words, Nude contract, in Common-law, is a bare contract, or promise of any thing without assigning, or agreeing what another shall give. 1683 R. DIXON Canidia III. xvi. 142 You say a Nude Pact's of no more force than a Lye. And yet I am bound my Gold to bring, As if it were the Word of a King. 1766 W. BLACKSTONE Comm. Laws Eng. II. xxx. 445 Any degree of reciprocity will prevent the pact from being nude. 1875 E. POSTE tr. Instit. Gaius (ed. 2) III. 361 A nude pact creates no (civil) obligation, but creates a defence. 1975 A. W. B. SIMPSON Hist. Common Law Contract 383 The question whether nude pacts were binding was not an enormously important one. 1981 Waterbury (Connecticut) American 23 Jan. 32/1 ‘Nude’ is used in law to indicate, as in ‘nude contract’, that a contract has been made without consideration.
c. Of a person: receiving no profit from supervising a transaction. Esp. in nude executor. Obs.
1590 H. SWINBURNE Briefe Treat. Test. 176 If the testator giue his goods to one person, and make another executor: this executor is called Nude executor, for that he reapeth no commoditie by the testament. 1726 J. AYLIFFE Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 269 A nude Executor here mention'd is no more than an Executor in Trust. 1875 E. POSTE tr. Instit. Gaius (ed. 2) III. 422 Including the nude or nominal proprietor.
2. Open, explicit; mere, plain. Obs.
1551 T. CRANMER Answer S. Gardiner 11 Is therfore the whole vse of the bread..but a naked or nude and bare token? 1581 J. HAMILTON Catholik Traictise f. 26, The Calvinists can not schau..ony place, quhair the vordis..ar tane for nude takins and signis. 1586 J. FERNE Blazon of Gentrie To Innes of Court, sig. Avii, I did alwaies abhor the nude title, and bare skill of a Blazoner, things common to each painter, & tricker of Armes. 1655 H. L'ESTRANGE Reign King Charles 89 Yet this could be..but a nude conjecture. 1667 E. WATERHOUSE Short Narr. Fire London 34 A bare accident and a nude casualty. 1806 W. TAYLOR in J. W. Robberds Mem. W. Taylor (1843) II. 127 In the nude cypherableness of the story and in the omnifariousness of the language.
3. a. Of an object, plant, animal, etc.: naked, bare; lacking natural covering, foliage, etc.; smooth, hairless; (also, of a building, etc.) empty, unadorned.
1656 T. BLOUNT Glossographia, Nude, bare, naked, uncovered; void, empty, destitute; poor. 1794 T. DWIGHT Greenfield Hill IV. 95 Where frown'd the nude rock, and the desert shore, Now pleasure sports, and business want beguiles. 1866 J. LINDLEY & T. MOORE Treasury Bot. 794/2 Nude,..bald from the total absence of hairs, or uncovered in consequence of the absence of any investing organs. 1867 M. E. HERBERT Cradle Lands iii. 85 A nude modern octagonal room. 1879 R. L. STEVENSON Trav. with Donkey (1886) 74 A broad nude valley in Vivarais. 1897 T. C. ALLBUTT Syst. Med. II. 1124 The bladders may..remain entirely nude and free in the peritoneal cavity. 1926 E. O'NEILL Great God Brown I. iii. 46, I am thy shorn, bald, nude sheep! 1964 D. VARADAY Gara-Yaka xii. 102 (caption) Vultures like baubles on a nude tree. 1981 Hi-Fi Ann. & Test '81 81/4 The 30 has a nude fine-line stylus.
b. Of a person or a part of the human body, or its representation in art, etc.: wearing no clothes, naked, bare. Also as adv. Whereas the term naked is generally regarded as a neutral descriptive term, nude is now often used in contexts of suggestive or gratuitous display (see also senses A. 3c and A. 3d).
1830 G. CROLY Paris in 1815 in Poet. Wks. 13 Spot of corruption! where the rabble rude Loiter round tinsel tomes, and figures nude. 1832 S. L. FAIRFIELD Last Night Pompeii ii. 76 Frescoes, picturing the satyr joys..And fountains, with nude naiads twining round The unveiled tritons. 1869 ‘M. TWAIN’ Innocents Abroad xxxiv. 377 The cadaverous, half nude varlets that served in the establishment had nothing of poetry in their appearance. 1880 ‘OUIDA’ Moths I. 73 He was so used to seeing pretty nude feet at Trouville. 1913 E. F. BENSON Thorley Weir i, The nude figure of a boy on the header-board in the act of springing from it into the water. 1937 Dict. Nat. Biogr. at Lady Feodora G. M. Gleichen, The Diana fountain in Rotten Row, Hyde Park, surmounted by a bronze figure of the nude goddess discharging an arrow. 1972 L. DEIGHTON Close-up xx, Her apartment overlooked the Tiber and there was a roof garden where she sunbathed nude. 1991 Time 15 July 74/3 Shake free of the plastic society, hug each other, wear feathers.., jiggle around nude.
c. Of a work of art, form of entertainment, etc.: involving or portraying one or more naked or scantily clad people; performed without clothing. Also of an actor or model: that performs or poses unclothed.
1869 D. N. CAMP Amer. Year-bk. I. 791 Her charms, so freely exhibited on the stage at this time that to her example the successful origin of the nude drama is attributed, were also used as the means of unnumbered conquests. 1874 Atlantic Monthly Nov. 532 We, of the legitimate, who regard the nude drama as a highly demoralizing innovation..went our several ways. 1888 Dict. National Biogr. at Daniel, George, Several extant oil-paintings..are not improbably the work of George himself, as is also the full-length nude study of a nymph. 1959 Listener 15 Jan. 132/3 The night-clubs in Calvin's city put on nude shows. 1974 Publishers Weekly 26 Aug. 250/3 A novel about a nude model who longs for true love. 1982 A. MAUPIN Further Tales of City 81 Some of the boys did an impressive nude water ballet to the music of ‘Tea for Two’. 2000 Country Music People May 30/3 He shouldn't have taken those nude photos, but no matter.
d. Of an activity: carried out without clothes on. Also, of a beach or other place: reserved or designed for nudists.
1884 Overland Monthly July 94/2 No scandal seems to be caused by their habit of nude bathing. 1894 J. RALPH in Harper's Mag. Aug. 341 Nude bathing will not be permitted. 1966 Playboy Dec. 234/2 BB indulges in a nude sun bath amidst a yardful of drying laundry. 1978 K. TYNAN Let. 21 May (1994) viii. 613 Dozens of beaches nearby, including a nude one and several topless. 1986 I. WEDDE Symmes Hole (1988) 78 A nude dash up Grass Street in the dark. 2000 Independent 24 Apr. I. 13/2 Nude beaches were legalised long ago in every state except Queensland.
4. Of a pinkish beige colour; flesh-coloured.
1922 Daily Mail 18 Dec. 2 (advt.) Ladies' Hose... Black, white,..taupe, navy, nude, and all shades. 1926 People's Home Jrnl. Feb. 14/4 One shade of green, for example, adopts black shoes with beige or nude stockings most successfully. 1931 M. DE LA ROCHE Finch's Fortune ix. 156 She had on..‘nude’ stockings. 1973 Philadelphia Inquirer 14 Oct. (Today Suppl.) 17/3 (advt.) Choose black, brown, navy or nude calfskin. 1992 Looks July 34/2 Cindy tends to wear neutral and nude shades of brown to define her features.
5. Med. and Biol. Designating a mouse of a strain homozygous for a mutant gene that produces hypoplasia of the thymus gland with severe T-cell immunodeficiency and apparent hairlessness. Also: designating the mutant gene itself.
1966 S. P. FLANAGAN in Genetical Res. 8 295 The majority of nude mice die of general body weakness within 2 weeks. 1974 Nature 20 Sept. 184/2 Nude mice have spread through the immunological world at a remarkable pace... The thymus abnormality leads to a marked deficiency in thymus-derived (T) lymphocytes and nude mice are rapidly replacing thymectomised mice as models of T cell deprivation and as a source of relatively pure B lymphocytes for in vitro studies. 1988 Mouse News Let. Nov. 9 Eight nude gene congenic strains which have different genetic backgrounds have been developed and are maintained for animal experiments on xenografts (human cancers) in our institute.
B. n.
1. a. Chiefly Art. A painting, sculpture, photograph, etc., of a naked human figure; a figure in such a painting, etc. Also: a naked person.
[1699 M. LISTER Journey to Paris 28 Such [statues] as were made Nudae are miserably disguised.] 1708 E. HATTON New View London II. 824/2 A Nude or Nudity, is a naked Figure painted or sculpted, without Drapery (or Cloathing). 1813 T. DIBDIN Metrical Hist. Eng. II. 258 Our British fair, no longer prudes, Improved to lib'ral minded Nudes. a1849 H. COLERIDGE Ess. & Marginalia (1851) I. 205 Are not the greatest masters almost as much celebrated for their draperies as for their nudes? 1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 9 May 3/2 We went round the Academy noticing the..pictures, and dismissing..a certain number of nudes, babies, and portraits of nobodies. 1922 R. FRY Let. 12 Apr. (1972) II. 525 [Picasso]'s doing wonderful little pictures of nudes..in egg tempera. 1989 M. GIMBUTAS Lang. of Goddess III. xviii. 200 Carved of bone, Stiff Nudes became elongated and quite slender, but they portray the same rigid posture of the Deity. 2002 A. SHELLEY Island in Snow Monkey 4 No. 2. 9 From a little out to sea the visible area of beach is a stage nudes move on.
b. A woman who wears very low-necked dresses. Obs. rare 1.
1810 Spirit of Public Jrnls. XIII. 273 As a link-boy was showing a certain fashionable nude, in Baker Street, out of her carriage [etc.].
2. a. Art. With the: the naked or undraped human figure conceived of as an aesthetic object; the representation of this in art.
1760 D. WEBB Inq. Beauties Painting iv. 51 The result of this habit is evident, when our first artists come to design the nud. 1782 R. CUMBERLAND Anecd. Painters I. 56 Being most in the nude, their crime will in some people's judgment appear their recommendation. 1854 T. MARTIN Correggio III. 65, I love the nude; Garments are nothing but the veils to beauty. 1868 R. BROWNING Ring & Bk. I. I. 4 Modern chalk drawings, studies from the nude. 1887 F. M. CRAWFORD Saracinesca i, The French school had not [yet] demonstrated the startling distinction between the nude and the naked. 1915 W. CATHER Song of Lark I. xvi. 111 Ray found that his brakemen were likely to have what he termed ‘a taste for the nude in art’. 1974 M. AYRTON Midas Consequence VIII. 208 Most of what I do is founded on, or derived from, the nude, the stripped human body, as is most of the good bronze sculpture in this world. 1992 Crafts Mar.-Apr. 19/2 The nude is confronted in life class (and notice it is not called drawing class).
b. in the nude: naked, unclothed. Also in extended use.
1856 E. B. BROWNING Aurora Leigh III. 710 Stands sublimely in the nude, as chaste As Medicean Venus. 1882 Globe 14 Dec. 5/5 They had seen him modelling..from Miss Felden, who stood in the nude as a model. 1891 G. MEREDITH One of our Conquerors III. vi. 112 He was a picture of Guilt in the nude, imploring to be sent into concealment. 1951 S. J. PERELMAN Let. 24 Oct. in Don't tread on Me (1987) 113 A state of frustration comparable to that of a man whose lingam is laid up for repairs only to have Ava Gardner, Jane Russell, and Marilyn Monroe prancing around him in the nude. 1966 A. HIGGINS Langrishe, go Down xxi. 155, I went..across to the plantation, stripped and ran round in the nude. 1995 D. MCLEAN Bunker Man 76 It fanned open on a spread of two women having a water-pistol fight in the nude.
3. Med. and Biol. A nude mouse; the nude gene. Cf. sense A. 5.
1966 S. P. FLANNAGAN in Genetical Res. 8 295 The hairless mutant was formed by Dr. N. R. Grist of the Virus Laboratory, Ruchill Hospital, Glasgow... The name ‘nude’, symbol nu, has been adopted. 1968 Nature 27 Jan. 371/1 (heading) Section of liver of an adult homozygote nude. 1977 P. B. MEDAWAR & J. S. MEDAWAR Life Sci. xiv. 120 The mutant mice known as nudes in which cell-mediated immunity is so gravely impaired that even grafts of human tissues can be accepted are not nearly so susceptible to tumours as the theory of immunological surveillance encourages us to believe. 1987 N. MACLEAN Macmillan Dict. Genetics & Cell Biol. 280/1 Mice homozygous for the gene ‘nude’ are referred to as nu nu.
DERIVATIVES
nudely adv. barely, simply, plainly; in an unclothed or unconcealed state.
a1631 J. DONNE Serm. (1956) VIII. 102 Being crudely, and *nudely taken, not decocted and boyl'd up. 1888 R. KIPLING Early Verse (1986) 391 Crudely, nudely, rudely, rawly, Saying, ‘Take back this Macauley’. 1910 H. JAMES Let. 14 Mar. in H. James & E. Wharton Lett. (1990) iii. 153 Osler ‘examined’ me more thoroughly & nudely than I have ever been examined before. 1973 A. HUNTER Gently French xi. 96 She got out of bed and stood for a moment, nudely glaring.
nudeness n. the state of being naked or unclothed.
1848 T. H. CHIVERS Virginalia (1853) 93 As Winter waits for Spring to come again, And robe her *nudeness in her green array. 1895 Cent. Mag. Aug. 494/2 Whether the nudeness itself outraged his sense of propriety. 1995 A. WARNER Morvern Callar (1996) 192 You watched the holidaymakers in different stages of nudeness move along the promenade.
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