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dodder

verb, noun — 2 senses

dodder

verb

UK /ˈdɒdə/ · US /ˈdɑdɚ/

Etymology From Middle English daderen (“to quake, tremble”). Compare Norwegian dudra (“to tremble”).

1

To shake or tremble as one moves, especially as of old age or childhood; to totter.

  • Yossarian responded to the thought by slipping away stealthily from the police and almost tripped over the feet of a burly woman of forty hastening across the intersection guiltily, darting furtive, vindictive glances behind her toward a woman of eighty with thick, bandaged ankles doddering after her in a losing pursuit.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 432:
  • Their neighbours have been, on one side, an old man who dodders around in his dressing gown talking to himself, and on the other a stand-offish couple who pretend not to understand the Spanish he speaks.2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, pages 59–60:
Derived terms
doddard, dodderer, doddering, doddery

dodder

noun

Etymology From Middle English doder (“flax dodder”), from Middle Dutch doder, from Old Dutch *doder, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *dodr (viz. theories of origin). Cognate with Middle Low German doder, West Flemish dodder.

1

Any of about 100–170 species of yellow, orange or red (rarely green) parasitic plants of the genus Cuscuta. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutaceae, it is now placed in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae.

Synonyms
angel hair, devil's guts, devil's hair, devil's ringlet, goldthread, hailweed, hairweed, hellbine, love vine, pull-down, strangleweed, witch's hair
Derived terms
buttonbush dodder, Chilean dodder, clover dodder, common dodder, compact dodder, cusp dodder, European dodder, field dodder, flax dodder, golden dodder, greater dodder, hazel dodder, large-seeded alfalfa dodder )Cuscuta campestris, Cuscuta approximata), laurel dodder, lesser dodder, linseed dodder, little-seed alfalfa dodder, rope dodder, small-seeded alfalfa dodder, smartweed dodder, swamp dodder, thyme dodder

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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