dozen
nounEtymology From a deliberate misspelling of doesn't, originally referring to someone who "dozen sing, dozen rap, dozen do anything."
1
Derogatory A member of a K-pop group who has no talent.
South Korean idol fandom
dozen
nounCA, US, UK /ˈdʌzən/ · AU, NZ /ˈdɐzən/
Etymology From Middle English dozen, dozein, doseyne, from Old French dozaine (“a group of twelve”) (Modern French douzaine), from doze (“twelve”) + -aine (“-ish”), from Latin duodecim (“twelve”) (from duo (“two”) + decem (“ten”)) + -ana (“-ish”).
1
A set of twelve.
- Can I have a dozen eggs, please?
- I ordered two dozen doughnuts.
3 more examples
- There are hundreds of people from each continent in the convention but only a few dozen came from Africa.
- Pack the shirts in dozens, please.
- Almost three dozen US service members were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after the Iranian missile attack earlier this month, the Pentagon said Friday.2020 January 26, Leah Asmelash, “Why traumatic brain injuries can be dangerous”, in CNN:
2
As plural only A large, unspecified number of, comfortably estimated in small multiples of twelve, thus generally implied to be significantly more than ten or twelve, but less than perhaps one or two hundred; many.
Always followed by of
- There must have been dozens of examples just on the first page.
- There were dozens and dozens of applicants before the job was posted.
2 more examples
- Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are diamond, ruby and sapphire, emerald and other gem forms of the mineral beryl, chrysoberyl, tanzanite, tsavorite, topaz and jade.2012 March 23, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2012, page 128:
- Jessalyn, known to her family as Jessa, was one of the dozens who were hit.2022 October 26, Christina Zdanowicz, Claudia Dominguez, Lauren M. Johnson and Sara Smart, “The Waukesha victims included an 8-year-old boy, a loving grandmother and a woman excited to make her debut in the Dancing Grannies”, in CNN:
3
Engineering, Metallurgy, Natural sciences, Physical sciences An old English measure of ore containing 12 hundredweight.
- The dozen as a measure for iron ore remained almost completely constant at 12 cwts. during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 139:
- Synonyms
- a great deal of, a lot of, heap of, hundred of, load of, lot of, many, million of, score of, scad of, thousand of
- Antonyms
- few
- Derived terms
26 terms
baker's dozen, banker's dozen, Botany Bay dozen, buzzin' dozen, by the dozen, cheaper by the dozen, daily dozen, decimal dozen, devil's dozen, dime a dozen, double dozen, dozenal, dozens, dozens offer, dozenth, half a dozen, half dozen, half-dozen, long dozen, nineteen to the dozen, short dozen, six of one, half dozen of the other, ten to the dozen, thirteen to the dozen, twenty to the dozen, two-dozen- Related terms
- gross