dodder
/ˈdɒdə/US/ˈdɑdɚ/
dodder verb: to shake or tremble as one moves, especially as of old age or childhood; to totter.
Verb
dodder (third-person singular simple present dodders, present participle doddering, simple past and past participle doddered)
- 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...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
Noun
dodder (countable and uncountable, plural dodders)
- 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
Proper noun capitalized: Dodder
Dodder
dodder meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
dodder in Tamil
- shake or tremble
- தள்ளாடு taḷḷāṭu
dodder in Urdu
- آکاس بیل, ڈگمگاتا, ڈھیلا, لرزنا, سست
dodder in Malayalam
- toddle, totter, teeter
- വേയ്ക്കുക, വേച്ചുവേച്ചുനീങ്ങുക, നടക്കുമ്പോൾ ചാഞ്ചാടുക, തവറുക, തെറ്റുക, പിഴയ്ക്കുക
dodder in Kannada
- ನಡುಗು, ತಲೆಯಾಡು
More languagesFewer languages
- dodder in Assamese
- তেলাকুচা telakusa
- dodder in Arabic
- كُشُوث kušūṯ, حَامُول ḥāmūl
- dodder in Thai
- โยกเยก yôok-yêek, สั่น sàn, ฝอยทอง fɔ̌i-tɔɔng
Synonyms of dodder
- angel hair
- devil's guts
- devil's hair
- devil's ringlet
- goldthread
- hailweed
- hairweed
- hellbine
- love vine
- pull-down
2 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of dodder
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | dodders |
| present participle | doddering |
| past participle | doddered |
| past | doddered |
| Noun | |
| plural | dodders |
Origin of dodder
Early 17th century, variant of dialectal dadder, from Middle English daderen (“to quake, tremble”), ultimately from the root of dither. Compare Norwegian dudra (“to tremble”).
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.
From Irish an Dothra
Words formed from dodder
- doddard
- dodderer
- doddering
- doddery
- 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
Words that rhyme with dodder
Questions about dodder
- What does dodder mean?
- Dodder means to shake or tremble as one moves, especially as of old age or childhood; to totter.
- What is dodder in Tamil?
- Dodder in Tamil is தள்ளாடு (taḷḷāṭu). See Dodder meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is dodder?
- Dodder can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce dodder?
- Dodder is pronounced /ˈdɒdə/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of dodder?
- The past tense of dodder is doddered.
Words near dodder in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dodder (page history and authors); Dodder (page history and authors); dodder (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dodder (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); dodder (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dodder.wav.
Cite this entry: “dodder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dodder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.