Also cuddin(g.
† 1. A born fool, a dolt. Obs.
1673. Wycherley, Gentl. Dancing-Master, IV. i. 59. Lord, that people shou’d be such arrant Cuddens.
1698. Def. Dram. Poetry, 80. The Fools we may divide into three Classes, viz. the Cudden, the Cully and the Fop. The Cudden a Fool of God Almighties making.
1700. Dryden, Fables, Cymon & Iph., 179. The slavering cudden, propped upon his staff.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, V. 309. Jack-puddings, for Cuddens.
2. local. A name for: a. The coal-fish [Gael. cudainn]; b. ? The char.
1791. Ayrsh. Statist. Acc., III. 589 (Jam.). In both loch and river [Doon] there are … cuddings, or charr.
1836. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes (1841), II. 251. Among the Scotch islands the Coalfish is called Sillock … Harbin, Cudden, Sethe [etc.].
1848. Life Normandy (1863), I. 283. It was some time before I knew that stainloch, grey-fish, seath, cudding, and poddly, were all one fish at different ages.
