The handle of a dagger, at one time made of box-wood root, called “dudgeon-wood;” a dagger with such a handle. Shakespeare does not say, “and on the blade oʹ the dudgeon gouts of blood,” but “on the blade and dudgeon . .,” both blade and handle.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.