Meaning

noun someone who is unsuccessful

noun an explosion that fails to occur

noun an event that fails badly or is totally ineffectual

originFrom Middle English dudde (“cloak, mantle, kind of cloth; ragged clothing or cloth”), from Old English *dudda (attested only as personal name Dudda, part of modern English Dudley), akin to Old Norse dúði (“swaddling clothes”), Low German dudel. Possibly borrowed from the Old Norse word and related to dýja (“to shake, tremble”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0