gudgeon Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun small spiny-finned fish of coastal or brackish waters having a large head and elongated tapering body having the ventral fins modified as a sucker
goby.
noun small slender European freshwater fish often used as bait by anglers
Gobio gobio.

OE. gojon, F. goujon, from L. gobio, or gob, Gr. Cf. 1st Goby.

(Zoöl.) 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.
What may be got without skill or merit.
Fish not, with this melancholy bait, For this fool gudgeon, this opinion. Shak.
A person easily duped or cheated. Swift.
(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.
(Naut.) A metal eye or socket attached to the sternpost to receive the pintle of the rudder.

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.