dottle

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English

Pronunciation

Rhymes: -ɒtəl

Etymology 1

From Middle English dottel, dottelle (“a plug or tap of a vessel”), a diminutive of Old English dott (> English dot (“a point”)), equivalent to dot +‎ -le. Related to Old English dyttan (“to stop up, clot”), Dutch dot (“a knot, lump, clod”), Low German Dutte (“a plug”). More at dit.

Alternative forms

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.
    • 1892, Richard Oliver Heslop, Northumberland Words. English Dialect Society - Kegan Paul et al.
      In refilling a pipe, where twist is smoked, a common practice is to save the dottle and put it on the top of the new-filled pipe. "Aw like a baccy dottle to leet wiv."
    • 1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine, Faber, page 96:
      one hand guards the burning dottle of my pipe from the force of the wind
    • 1981, John Gardner, Freddy's Book, Abacus, published 1982, page 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.
Translations
References
  • Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “dottle”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎, archived from the original on 2024-09-05.
  • Frank Graham, editor (1987), “DOTTLE”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
  • Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4

Verb

dottle (third-person singular simple present dottles, present participle dottling, simple past and past participle dottled)

  1. To set pottery flatware horizontally on thimbles.

Etymology 2

Related to dote, dotard.

Adjective

dottle (comparative more dottle, superlative most dottle)

  1. (Scotland) Stupid or senile.
    • 1893, David Herschell Edwards, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets: With Biographical and Critical Notices, volume 15, page 403:
      When days and years proclaim you’re old —
       A dottle, cripple, gouty fellow,
      Then for support you can lay hold
       O’ the upright of your umberella.

Noun

dottle (plural dottles)

  1. (Scotland) A dotard.
Synonyms

Anagrams

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