dodge

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”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɒd͡ʒ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɑd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɒdʒ

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

1. (transitive, intransitive) To avoid (something) by moving suddenly out of the way.

   He dodged traffic crossing the street.

   • 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 26:48 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!‎^[1], archived from the original on 20 July 2022:

     But that was only the start, because the Fletchers - (obviously) carrying two torpedo launchers - were only launching half-salvos, so one full wave of torpedoes had driven off the cruisers after having savaged the destroyers, aaand then it was a case of, well, here come twenty-five destroyers, here comes^[sic] two hundred and fifty torpedoes, hello Japanese battleships, dodge this!

2. (transitive, figuratively) To avoid; to sidestep.

   The politician dodged the question with a meaningless reply.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎^[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, transitive, intransitive) To go, or cause to go, hither and thither.
   • 1862, George Borrow, Wild Wales:

     Or if a footpad asks him for his money, what need he care provided he has an umbrella? He threatens to dodge the ferrule into the ruffian’s eye, and the fellow starts back and says, “Lord, sir! I meant no harm. […]

4. (photography, videography) To decrease the exposure for certain areas of an image in order to make them darker.

   Coordinate term: burn

5. (transitive) To follow by dodging, or suddenly shifting from place to place.
   • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, II.iii.7:

     "I had a notion he was dodging me all the way I came, for I saw him just behind me, turn which way I would."

   • 1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC:

     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 December 13, Charles Dickens, “The Ghost in Master B’s Room”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Haunted House. The Extra Christmas Number of All the Year Round […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Whiting, […], →OCLC, page 30:

     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.

6. (transitive, intransitive, dated) To trick somebody.

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

dodge (plural dodges)

1. An act of dodging.
2. A trick, evasion or wile. (Now mainly in the expression tax dodge.)
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 12, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     The dodges of women beat all comprehension; and I am sure she wouldn’t let the lad off so easily, if she had not some other scheme on hand.

   • 1869, Punch, volume 57, page 257:

     “Ain't this a rum go? This is a queer sort of dodge for lighting the streets.”

   • 1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan, →OCLC, page 14:

     He knows everybody, and is up to all the dodges of editorial management and newspaper cliques.

3. (slang) A line of work.
   • 1992, Time, volume 140, numbers 1-9, page 74:

     In the marketing dodge, that is known as rub-off.

   • 2009, Chris Knopf, Head Wounds, page 233:

     Through a series of unconventional circumstances, some my fault, Jackie had found herself working both civil and criminal sides of the real estate dodge, which put her among a rare breed of attorney […]

• scaldrum dodge

dodge (comparative more dodge, superlative most dodge)

1. (Australia, British, colloquial) Dodgy.