dodge

verb

/dɒd͡ʒ/UK/dɑd͡ʒ/US

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”).

derived from *dud-✻ — “to move”
inherited from *dodden✻

Definitions

1
To avoid (something) by moving suddenly out of the way.
- He dodged traffic crossing the street.
2
To avoid
To avoid; to sidestep.
- The politician dodged the question with a meaningless reply.
3
To elude.
- “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!”
›+ 11 more definitionsshow fewer
1. 4
  To go, or cause to go, hither and thither.
  - 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. […]
2. To make an area of an image lighter (when processing photographs in a darkroom, this is…
  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).
3. 6
  To follow by dodging, or suddenly shifting from place to place.
  - "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."
  - 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.
  - 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.
4. To trick somebody.
5. An act of dodging.
6. 9
  A trick, evasion or wile. (Now mainly in the expression tax dodge.)
  - The dodges of women beat all comprehension; and I am sure she wouldn’t let the lad off so easily, if she had not some other scheme on hand.
  - “Ain't this a rum go? This is a queer sort of dodge for lighting the streets.”
  - He knows everybody, and is up to all the dodges of editorial management and newspaper cliques.
7. 10
  A line of work.
  - In the marketing dodge, that is known as rub-off.
  - Through a series of unconventional circumstances, some my fault, Jackie had found herself working both civil and criminal sides of the real estate dodge, which put her among a rare breed of attorney […]
8. Dodgy.
9. A surname originating as a patronymic.
10. A placename
11. A brand of motor vehicle.

The neighborhood

Derived

dodgeable, dodge a bullet, dodgeball, dodgeful, dodgem, dodger, dodgery, dodge the column, dodge up, dodgy, draft-dodge, outdodge, undodged, scaldrum dodge

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for dodge. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA