Dodge

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dÉ’dÊ’/
• Rhymes: -É’dÊ’

Origin

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

Full definition of dodge

Verb

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, w, Internal Combustion Chapter 2, 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.
• ColeridgeA 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.

Synonyms

• (to avoid) duck, evade, fudge, skirt

Derived terms

• dodge a bullet
• dodger
• dodgy

Noun

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