dodge

Etymology

Uncertain, but possibly from Old English dydrian, by way of dialectal dodd or dodder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɒdʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒdʒ

Verb

dodge (third-person singular simple present dodges, present participle dodging, simple past and past participle dodged)

1. To avoid by moving suddenly out of the way.

   He dodged traffic crossing the street.

2. (figuratively) To avoid; to sidestep.

   The politician dodged the question with a meaningless reply.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎:

     The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.

3. (archaic) To go hither and thither.
4. (photography) To decrease the exposure for certain areas of a print in order to make them darker (compare burn).
5. (transitive) To follow by dodging, or suddenly shifting from place to place.
   • Coleridge

     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.

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House

     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.

Noun

dodge (plural dodges)

1. An act of dodging
2. A trick, evasion or wile