Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Dote
2.
pl.
Natural endowments.
[Obs.]
B. Jonson.
Dote
,Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Doted
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Doting
.] [OE.
doten
; akin to OD. doten
, D. dutten
, to doze, Icel. dotta
to nod from sleep, MHG. t[GREEK]zen
to keep still: cf. F. doter
, OF. radoter
(to dote, rave, talk idly or senselessly), which are from the same source.] [Written also
doat
.] 1.
To act foolishly.
[Obs.]
He wol make him
doten
anon right. Chaucer.
2.
To be weak-minded, silly, or idiotic; to have the intellect impaired, especially by age, so that the mind wanders or wavers; to drivel.
Time has made you
Of arms imagined in your lonely cell.
dote
, and vainly tellOf arms imagined in your lonely cell.
Dryden.
He survived the use of his reason, grew infatuated, and
doted
long before he died. South.
3.
To be excessively or foolishly fond; to love to excess; to be weakly affectionate; – with on or upon;
as, the mother
. dotes
on her childSing, siren, for thyself, and I will
dote
. Shakespeare
What dust we
dote
on, when ’t is man we love. Pope.
Dote
,Noun.
An imbecile; a dotard.
Halliwell.
Webster 1828 Edition
Dote
DOTE
,Verb.
I.
1.
To be delirious; to have the intellect impaired by age, so that the mind wanders or wavers; to be silly.Time has made you dote, and vainly tell of arms imagined in your lonely cell.
2.
To be excessively in love; usually with on or upon; to dote on, is to love to excess or extravagance.What dust we dote on, when tis man we love.
Aholah dotes on her lovers, the Assyrians. Ezekiel 23.
3.
To decay.