English

Alternative forms

• dottel

Noun

dottle ‎(plural dottles)

1. A plug or tap of a vessel.
2. A small rounded lump or mass.
3. The still burning or wholly burnt tobacco plug in a pipe.
   • 1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine, Faber p. 96:

     one hand guards the burning dottle of my pipe from the force of the wind

   • 1981, John Gardner, Freddy's Book, Abacus 1982, p. 38:

     I clenched my pipe in my right fist and poked at the dottle busily with various fingers, first one then another, of my left hand.

   • 1984, Alan Dean Foster, The Hour of the Gate, page 89:

     He tapped out the dottle on the deck, locked the steering oar in position, and commenced repacking his pipe.

   • 2010, Stephen Fry, The Fry Chronicles:

     I fiddle and scrape and poke for a while, banging out the dottle from my previous pipeful into an ashtray and puffing down the stem like a horn player warming up his trumpet.

4. (Geordie) A baby's dummy, pacifier.

References

• Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin,
• The New Geordie Dictionary, Frank Graham, 1987, ISBN 0946928118
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4