Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—G

Gudgeon

Gaping for gudgeons. Looking out for things extremely improbable. As a gudgeon is a bait to deceive fish, it means a lie, a deception.

To swallow a gudgeon.
To be bamboozled with a most palpable lie, as silly fish are caught by gudgeons. (French, goujon, whence the phrase faire avaler le goujon, to humbug.)

Make fools believe in their foreseeing
Of things before they are in being,
To swallow gudgeons ere they're catched,
And count their chickens ere they're hatched.

Butler: Hudibras, ii. 3.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Gudrun
Gubbings
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