gudgeon

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: gudg=eon

CIDE DICTIONARY

gudgeon, n. [OE. gojon, F. goujon, from L. gobio, or gobius, Gr. kwbio`s Cf. 1st Goby. ].

•  A small European freshwater fish (Gobio fluviatilis), allied to the carp. It is easily caught and often used for food and for bait. In America the killifishes or minnows are often called gudgeons.  [1913 Webster]
•  What may be got without skill or merit.  [1913 Webster]

  "Fish not, with this melancholy bait,
  For this fool gudgeon, this opinion."  [1913 Webster]
•  A person easily duped or cheated.  Swift.  [1913 Webster]
•  The pin of iron fastened in the end of a wooden shaft or axle, on which it turns; formerly, any journal, or pivot, or bearing, as the pintle and eye of a hinge, but esp. the end journal of a horizontal.  [1913 Webster]
•  A metal eye or socket attached to the sternpost to receive the pintle of the rudder.  [1913 Webster]

Ball gudgeon. See under Ball.

gudgeon, v. t. 

 To deprive fraudulently; to cheat; to dupe; to impose upon.  [1913 Webster]
"To be gudgeoned of the opportunities which had been given you."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

gudgeon, n.
1 a small European freshwater fish, Gobio gobio, often used as bait.
2 a credulous or easily fooled person.

gudgeon, n.
1 any of various kinds of pivot working a wheel, bell, etc.
2 the tubular part of a hinge into which the pin fits to effect the joint.
3 a socket at the stern of a boat, into which a rudder is fitted.
4 a pin holding two blocks of stone etc. together.

Idiom

gudgeon-pin (in an internal-combustion engine) a pin holding a piston-rod and a connecting-rod together.

Etymology

ME f. OF goujon dimin. of gouge GOUGE

THESAURUS

gudgeon

arbor, axis, axle, axle bar, axle shaft, axle spindle, axle-tree, babe, boob, chump, cinch, credulous person, cull, distaff, dupe, easy mark, easy pickings, fall guy, fish, fool, fulcrum, gimbal, gobe-mouches, greener, greenhorn, greeny, gull, hinge, hingle, hub, innocent, leadpipe cinch, mandrel, monkey, nave, oarlock, patsy, pigeon, pin, pintle, pivot, plaything, pole, prize sap, pushover, radiant, rowlock, sap, saphead, schlemiel, sitting duck, spindle, stooge, sucker, swivel, toy, trunnion, trusting soul, victim

ROGET THESAURUS

gudgeon

Dupe

N dupe, gull, gudgeon, gobemouche, cull, cully, victim, pigeon, April fool, jay, sucker, laughingstock, Cyclops, simple Simon, flat, greenhorn, fool, puppet, cat's paw, credulous, mistaken.