Dudley
//ˈdʌdli// name, noun
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A miner's container for water for drinking.
"[…] miner dreamt of the day when he could throw away his Dudley and his pit boots."
- 2 Alternative form of Dudley (“miner's water container”). alt-of, alternative
"Lew, crouching in the confined space, took a deep drink from his dudley then began to strip too."
Proper Noun
- 1 A market town and metropolitan borough of the West Midlands, England.
- 2 A habitational surname from Old English, notably of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester at the time of Elizabeth I.
- 3 A male given name transferred from the surname, of 19th century and later usage.
- 4 Four townships in the United States, in Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota and Ohio, listed under Dudley Township.
- 5 A former township in the municipality of Dysart et al, Haliburton County, Ontario, Canada.
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- 6 A suburb of Newcastle in the Lake Macquarie council area, New South Wales, Australia.
Example
More examples"Dudley listened with wide-open ears, enraptured with the tale, and glowing at the thought that this was to be his life once he arrived at Mr. Bradshaw's farm, never dreaming that the kindly friend beside him had sad news to convey."
Etymology
From Old English, literally "wood or clearing of Dudda (a personal name of unknown meaning)".
Related phrases
More for "dudley"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.