Meanings
- not comparableIndignant and enraged.
Perino is just one of many who is in high dudgeon. And Newsom responded to Perino with a dead-on Trump-like response: “DANA ‘DING DONG’ PERINO (NEVER HEARD OF HER UNTIL TODAY!)”
2025 August 22, Tom Nichols, “MAGA World Is So Close to Getting It”, in The Atlantic2 more examples
“[…] But wandering here and there, incognito in a vapor, so much wickedness did Vivo spy out, that in high dudgeon he hurried up his ladder, knocking the mountains from under him as he went. […]”
1849, Herman Melville, chapter XC, in Mardi: And a Voyage Thither. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 314We have seen today elements of the Conservative party in high dungeon, or dudgeon—[Interruption.] Maybe they should be in the high dungeon. We have seen them in high dudgeon about the fact that […]
2019 March 27, Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab), “EU Exit Day Amendment”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons), column 446
- idiomaticResentfully or furiously, with indignation or pomposity.
He puts on a querulous voice and says, "Question. What particular altitude is dudgeon inevitably? Answer. High." He laughs and slaps his knees.
1987, Bernard MacLaverty, short story. "The Drapery Man" (published in The Great Profumo and Other Stories, Jonathan Cape, 1987) - p.351 more example
When civil dudgeon first grew high, \ And men fell out, they knew not why; \ When hard words, jealousies, and fears, \ Set folks together by the ears..
1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 1
Translations
Hungarian neheztelve, durcásan
- neheztelveresentfully, furiously
- durcásanresentfully, furiously
Russian в глубо́ком возмуще́нии
- в глубо́ком возмуще́нии (v glubókom vozmuščénii)resentfully, furiously
Cite this entry
in high dudgeon. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20high%20dudgeon
“in high dudgeon.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20high%20dudgeon. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “in high dudgeon,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20high%20dudgeon.
Source: in high dudgeon on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.