dudgeon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a feeling of intense indignation, now only found in the phrase 'in high dudgeon'

   After being insulted at the dinner party, I left in high dudgeon.

2. 2
   noun

   A feeling of anger or resentment, especially haughty indignation.

   All gentle folks who owe a grudge / To any living thing, / Open your ears and stay your trudge / Whilst I in dudgeon sing.

3. 3
   noun

   A kind of wood used especially in the handles of knives; the root of the box tree.

   Turners and Cutlers, if I mistake not the matter, doe call this wood Dudgeon, wherewith they make Dudgeon hafted daggers.

4. 4
   noun

   A hilt made of this wood.

   And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood.

Uncertain: * Perhaps the same as Etymology 2, below * Perhaps from Welsh dygen (“anger, grudge”) (from dy- + cwyn (“complaint”)), though the OED rejects this. * Possibly from dudgen (“trash, something worthless”). * Possibly borrowed from Italian aduggiare (“to overshadow”), similar to the semantic development of umbrage.

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