Green’s Dictionary of Slang

widgeon n.

a fool.

1607		G. Wilkins Miseries of an Enforced Marriage Act IV: Widgeons, widgeons: a couple of gulls!
1617		J. Taylor ‘Iacke a Lent’ in Works (1869) I 116: It is Lents intent, that the innocent Lambe and the Essex calfe, should suruiue to weare the crest of their Ancestors: that the Goose, the Buzzard, the Widgeon, and the Woodcocke, may walke fearlesse in any market Towne.
1627		J. Taylor ‘An Armado’ in Works (1869) I 78: They had likewise store of fowle, as Gull, Goose, Widgeon, Woodcocke, Buzzard, Owles, Cormorants, Quailes, Railes, Cuckooes, Wag-tailes, Ring-tailes, and Bittoures.
1633		Rowley Match at Midnight II i: I ha’ heard of that Widgeon, I ha’ been taken for him.
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 17 20–27 Sept. 150: He will have three kicks on the arse, two fillips on the Nose, and be counted but a Widggen for his paines.
1659		Greene & Lodge Lady Alimony II vi: May he, pen-feather’d widgeon, forfeit’s freedom.
1679		‘The Licentiousness of the Times’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) II 717: Another, tho’ he be but a senseless Widgion, / Will, like an Archbishop, determine Religion.
c.1688		‘The Wife’s Answer to the Henpeckt Cuckold’s Complaint’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1891) VII:2 433: He mutter’d and pouted then, the Widgeon look’d wondrous blew.
a.1691		‘A Merry Song’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 98: Mahomet was no Divine, / But a senseless Widgeon, / To forbid the use of wine.
1710		A Society of Ladies Female Tatler (1992) (110) 199: Squire Widgeon wore shams.
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) II 229: Thus all these widgeons enjoy the novelty of their situation.
1815		T. Whittell ‘The Duke of Berwick’s Plot’s Wedding’ Poetical Works 113: He is but a widgeon / That talks of religion.
1846		J.H. Ingraham Pierce Fenning 61: What a dull widgeon of a wooden head you are.