dodge
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɒd͡ʒ/
ipa: /dɑd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -ɒdʒ
Forms: form: dodges
form: dodging
form: dodged
form: dodged
Etymology: Likely from dialectal dodge, dod, dodd (“to jog, trudge along, totter", also "to jerk, jig”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from unrecorded Middle English *dodden, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dud- (“to move”), related to Old English dydrian, dyderian (“to delude, deceive”), Middle English dideren (“to tremble, quake, shiver”), English dodder, Norwegian dudra (“to tremble”).
Senses: examples: text: He dodged traffic crossing the street.
text: But that was only the start, because the Fletchers - (obviously) carrying two torpedo launchers - were only launching half-salvos, so one full wave of torpedoes had driven off the cruisers after having savaged the destroyers, aaand then it was a case of, well, here come twenty-five destroyers, here comes^([sic]) two hundred and fifty torpedoes, hello Japanese battleships, dodge this!
ref: 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 26:48 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2022:
glosses: To avoid (something) by moving suddenly out of the way.
examples: text: The politician dodged the question with a meaningless reply.
text: The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.
ref: 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:
glosses: To avoid; to sidestep.
examples: text: “We must follow after this dreadnought, hard on her tracks. She shall not dodge me though she hide in unfathomed waters, or in the earth's bosom, or in lonely woods, or on crags!”
ref: 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 35:
glosses: To elude.
examples: text: Or if a footpad asks him for his money, what need he care provided he has an umbrella? He threatens to dodge the ferrule into the ruffian’s eye, and the fellow starts back and says, “Lord, sir! I meant no harm. […]
ref: 1862, George Borrow, Wild Wales:
glosses: To go, or cause to go, hither and thither.
topics: arts
broadcasting
film
hobbies
lifestyle
media
photography
television
videography
coordinate_terms: burn
glosses: To make an area of an image lighter (when processing photographs in a darkroom, this is accomplished by decreasing the exposure of that area to light).
examples: text: "I had a notion he was dodging me all the way I came, for I saw him just behind me, turn which way I would."
ref: 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, II.iii.7:
text: A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! / And still it neared and neared: / As if it dodged a water-sprite, / It plunged and tacked and veered.
ref: 1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC:
text: Miss Griffin screamed after me, the faithless Vizier ran after me, and the boy at the turnpike dodged me into a corner, like a sheep, and cut me off.
ref: 1859 December 13, Charles Dickens, “The Ghost in Master B’s Room”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Haunted House. The Extra Christmas Number of All the Year Round […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Whiting, […], →OCLC, page 30:
glosses: To follow by dodging, or suddenly shifting from place to place.
glosses: To trick somebody.
Synonyms: sense: to avoid
word: duck
sense: to avoid
word: evade
sense: to avoid
word: fudge
sense: to avoid
word: skirt
sense: to avoid
word: shun
Derived terms: dodgeable
dodge a bullet
dodgeball
dodgeful
dodgem
dodger
dodgery
dodge the column
dodge up
dodgy
draft-dodge
outdodge
undodged