Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an article of clothing, esp. a cloak, made from rough, coarse cloth; thus dudded adj., clothed.

c.1440		Promptuarium Parvulorum 134/2: Dudde, clothe, amphibilus.
1514		Skelton Agenst Garnesche iii line 42: Dekkyd lewdly in your gere [...] Ye had a knavysche cote Was skantly worthe a groate; In dud frese ye war schrynyd, With better frese lynyd.
1782		G. Parker Humorous Sketches 31: To his very last dud Nick would readily fence.
1815		(con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 148: There was not one, from Johnnie Faa the upright man, of the gang to little Christie that was in the panniers, would cloyed a dud from them.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 108: ’Gad, I remember when I had not a dud to my back.
1903		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:v 296: dud, n. Old garment. ‘Any old dud’.
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 135: We milled with all the cowboydudded tourists and oilmen.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 35: The cowboy-dudded tourists and oilmen.

2. a rag, a cloth.

1870

Dundee Courier 15 Jan. 3/3: Her well-used dishclout [...] was only discovered after the social party had got at the depth of the pie and [...] the ‘dirty dud’ was pulled forth.