doddle
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈdɒdl̩/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈdɑd(ə)l/
- Rhymes: -ɒdəl
- Homophone: dawdle (cot–caught merger)
- Hyphenation: dod‧dle
Etymology 1
Uncertain. Possibly from dialectal English doddle (“to toddle; sway; nod drowsily”).
Noun
doddle (plural doddles)
- (UK, Ireland, informal) A job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete or simple.
- Synonyms: breeze, cinch, piece of cake; see also Thesaurus:easy thing
- 1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian:
- Centurion: Have you ever seen anyone crucified? / Matthias: Crucifixion's a doddle.
- 2009, Archie Macpherson, “Thumping the Tub”, in A Game of Two Halves: The Autobiography, Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:
- He was a QC from Edinburgh, wearing the black jacket and pinstripe trousers of his trade, as if straight from court, and probably persuaded to come in the belief that if you could interest the Budhill and Springboig party in the repressive Gaullist policies in Algeria then becoming Solicitor-General was a dawdle.
Alternative forms
Translations
Verb
doddle (third-person singular simple present doddles, present participle doddling, simple past and past participle doddled)
- To dodder.
- 1874, Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, My Time, and what I've Done with it: An Autobiography, page 369:
- […] a doddling old grandfather to act as sheep-dog, as a toothless, barkless, harmless guardian.
- Misspelling of dawdle.
- 2004, Katie Lee, Sandstone Seduction: Rivers and Lovers, Canyons and Friends:
- Usually we doddled, stopping to flush quail or dove for dinner, skeet-shooting our beer bottles, and watering the cacti.
Etymology 2
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun
doddle (plural doddles)
See also
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