Gud"geon (?), n. [OE. gojon, F. goujon, from L. gobio, or gob, Gr. Cf. 1st Goby. ]
1. Zool.
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. In Australia, fishes of the Eleotrididae are known as gudgeons, whilst the common name for various marine fishes is constituted in part by gudgeon (eg. spot tail gudgeon, blue tail gudgeon).
2.
What may be got without skill or merit.
Fish not, with this melancholy bait,
For this fool gudgeon, this opinion.
Shak.
3.
A person easily duped or cheated.
Swift.
4. Mach.
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.
6. Naut.
A metal eye or socket attached to the sternpost to receive the pintle of the rudder.
Ball gudgeon. See under Ball.
© Webster 1913.
Gud"geon, v. t.
To deprive fraudulently; to cheat; to dupe; to impose upon.
[R.]
To be gudgeoned of the opportunities which had been given you.
Sir IV. Scott.
© Webster 1913.