| 释义 |
▪ I. doddle, n.1 and a. Obs. exc. dial.|ˈdɒd(ə)l|
[f. dod v.1: cf. doddard. Whether orig. n. or a. is not clear.]
A. n. A pollard.
B. adj. Pollard, of which the top has been cut off.
1601Holland Pliny xxvi. II. 251 It..groweth at the foot of old trees. (Marg. Yea also in the head of doddle oaks.) 1887Jessop Arcady 55 Its huge hedgerow with the ‘doddles’ or pollards, which afforded firing for rich and poor.
▪ II. † ˈdoddle, n.2 Obs.
[f. doddle v.]
? A doddling or infirm person.
1681Otway Soldier's Fort. i. i, Is your Piece of Mortality such a doting Doddle? is he so very fond of you?
▪ III. ˈdoddle, n.3 colloq.
[? f. doddle v. 2.]
Something that is easy or requires little effort; a ‘walk-over’; (see also quot. 1937).
1937Partridge Dict. Slang 229/2 Doddle, money very easily obtained. 1966M. Woodhouse Tree Frog xv. 122 If the climb had reached any level of difficulty higher than Moderate, which is the Climbers' Club's polite way of labelling a gumshoe doddle, we'd have died. 1970A. Draper Swansong for Rare Bird vi. 40 Probation was a doddle really, and it didn't make much difference to me.
▪ IV. doddle, v.|ˈdɒd(ə)l|
[var. of daddle: cf. also dodder v., and with sense 2 toddle.]
†1. trans. To shake, nod (the head). Obs.
1653Urquhart Rabelais i. xxii. (1694) I. 85 Mumbling with his Mouth, nodding and dodling his Head.
2. intr. To walk with short, infirm, or unsteady steps, to toddle; to totter; to dawdle.
1761Gray Let. 24 Sept. Wks. 1884 III. 114 The old Bishop of Lincoln, with his stick, went doddling by the side of the Queen. 1847–78Halliwell, Doddle, to totter; to dawdle. North. 1869in Lonsdale Gloss. 1875in Sussex Gloss. 1884Spectator 6 Dec. 1614 A pretty girl..with a quantity of little pigs doddling about in front of her.
Hence ˈdoddled, ˈdoddling ppl. adjs.; ˈdoddlish a. (dial.), feeble, infirm.
1847–78Halliwell, Doddleish, feeble. Sussex. 1874Burnand My Time xxxiv. 369 A doddling old grandfather. 1875Sussex Gloss., Doddlish, infirm. 1893H. M. Doughty Our Wherry in Wendish Lands 321 The doddled old küster so bothered us. |