Link Centre Dictionary

dodge

UK/dɒd͡ʒ/ US/dɑd͡ʒ/ fairly common slang uk us
verb (3) noun (3)

verb

1.

make a sudden movement in a new direction so as to avoid

  • “The child dodged the teacher”
2.

move to and fro or from place to place usually in an irregular course

  • “the pickpocket dodged through the crowd”
3.

avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)

  • “He dodged the issue”
  • “she skirted the problem”
  • “They tend to evade their responsibilities”
  • “he evaded the questions skillfully”
Synonyms

noun

1.

an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade

  • “his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track”
Synonyms
2.
3.

a statement that evades the question by cleverness or trickery

Synonyms

Origin

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”).

Phrases

  • dodge a bullet
  • dodge the column
  • dodge up
  • scaldrum dodge

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.