take the studs

English

Etymology

From an Old English dialect phrase "take the sturdies".

Verb

take the studs (third-person singular simple present takes the studs, present participle taking the studs, simple past took the studs, past participle taken the studs)

1. (Southern US, Midlands) To act in a balky and uncooperative manner.
   • 1891, Joel Chandler Harris, Balaam and His Master:

     Pap has taken the studs, and I have made up my mind to leave here for good and all.

   • 1918, History of Corporal Fess Whitaker, pages 10–11:

     When I was eight years old my mother started me to an old water mill with two bushels of corn to get meal and put me on an old mule named "John," put a spur on my right heel to make the old mule go if he took the studs.

   • 1997, Arlena Collins Francis, Knott, My Beloved:

     She said, "When I was passing Wily B. Smiths," who was the hoot'n‑toot'n lad "Tanner" adopted, "the mule I was riding took the studs and began going backwards. Try as I did, it wouldn't budge forward."