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Webster 1913 Edition


Dodge

Dodge

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Dodged
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Dodging
.]
[Of uncertain origin: cf.
dodder
, v.,
daddle
, dade, or
dog
, v. t.]
1.
To start suddenly aside, as to avoid a blow or a missile; to shift place by a sudden start.
Milton.
2.
To evade a duty by low craft; to practice mean shifts; to use tricky devices; to play fast and loose; to quibble.
Some
dodging
casuist with more craft than sincerity.
Milton.

Dodge

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To evade by a sudden shift of place; to escape by starting aside;
as, to
dodge
a blow aimed or a ball thrown
.
2.
Fig.: To evade by craft;
as, to
dodge
a question; to
dodge
responsibility.
[Colloq.]
S. G. Goodrich.
3.
To follow by dodging, or suddenly shifting from place to place.
Coleridge.

Dodge

,
Noun.
The act of evading by some skillful movement; a sudden starting aside; hence, an artful device to evade, deceive, or cheat; a cunning trick; an artifice.
[Colloq.]
Some, who have a taste for good living, have many harmless arts, by which they improve their banquet, and innocent
dodges
, if we may be permitted to use an excellent phrase that has become vernacular since the appearance of the last dictionaries.
Thackeray.

Webster 1828 Edition


Dodge

DODGE

,
Verb.
I.
doj.
[from some root signifying to shoot, dart or start.]
1.
To start suddenly aside; to shift place by a sudden start.
2.
To play tricks; to be evasive; to use tergiversation; to play fast and loose; to raise expectations and disappoint them; to quibble.

DODGE

,
Verb.
T.
To evade by a sudden shift of place; to escape by starting aside; as, to dodge a blow aimed; to dodge a canon ball. [This is a common word, very expressive and useful, but not admissible in solemn discourse or elegant composition.]

Definition 2024


Dodge

Dodge

See also: dodge

English

Proper noun

Dodge

  1. A surname derived from a Middle English diminutive of Roger. (Typically found in the United States.)
  2. A brand of motor vehicle.
  3. A village in Nebraska.
  4. A city/village in North Dakota.
  5. A census-designated place in Oklahoma.
  6. A town in Wisconsin.

Derived terms

dodge

dodge

See also: Dodge

English

Verb

dodge (third-person singular simple present dodges, present participle dodging, simple past and past participle dodged)

  1. To avoid by moving suddenly out of the way.
    He dodged traffic crossing the street.
  2. (figuratively) To avoid; to sidestep.
    The politician dodged the question with a meaningless reply.
    • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:
      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.
  3. (archaic) To go hither and thither.
  4. (photography) To decrease the exposure for certain areas of a print in order to make them darker (compare burn).
  5. (transitive) To follow by dodging, or suddenly shifting from place to place.
    • Coleridge
      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.
    • 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House
      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.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

dodge (plural dodges)

  1. An act of dodging
  2. A trick, evasion or wile