dodge

UK/dɒd͡ʒ//dɑd͡ʒ/

dodge verb: to avoid (something) by moving suddenly out of the way.

Verb

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

(ambitransitive) To avoid (something) by moving suddenly out of the way.
- He dodged traffic crossing the street.
- 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...2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 26:48 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2022
(figuratively, transitive) To avoid; to sidestep.
- The politician dodged the question with a meaningless reply.
- 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.2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion
Synonyms:

duck, evade, fudge, skirt, shun
(transitive) To elude.
- “We must follow after this dreadnought, hard on her tracks. She shall not dodge me though she hide in unfathomed waters, or in the earth's bosom, or in lonely woods, or on crags!”1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 35
(ambitransitive, archaic) To go, or cause to go, hither and thither.
- 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. […]1862, George Borrow, Wild Wales
To make an area of an image lighter (when processing photographs in a darkroom, this is accomplished by decreasing the exposure of that area to light).
(transitive) To follow by dodging, or suddenly shifting from place to place.
- "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."1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, II.iii.7
- 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.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
(ambitransitive, dated) To trick somebody.

Noun

dodge (plural dodges)

An act of dodging.
A trick, evasion or wile. (Now mainly in the expression tax dodge.)
- 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.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...
- “Ain't this a rum go? This is a queer sort of dodge for lighting the streets.”1869, Punch, volume 57, page 257
(slang) A line of work.
- In the marketing dodge, that is known as rub-off.1992, Time, volume 140, numbers 1-9, page 74
- 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 […]2009, Chris Knopf, Head Wounds, page 233

Adjective

dodge (comparative more dodge, superlative most dodge)

(Australia, UK, colloquial) Dodgy.

Proper noun capitalized: Dodge

Dodge (countable and uncountable, plural Dodges)

(US, countable) A surname originating as a patronymic.
A village in Nebraska.
A city and village in North Dakota.
A census-designated place in Oklahoma.
A town in Wisconsin.
A brand of motor vehicle.

dodge meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

dodge in Tamil

ஏமாற்று, ஏய், தட்டிக் கழி, காலம் கடத்து, ஏய்ப்பு, சொற்புரட்டு

dodge in Marathi

to trick somebody: चकवणे cakavṇe
dodging: चकवणूक cakavṇūk

dodge in Urdu

دغا دینا, دھوکا دینا, ہیر پھیر کرنا, کٹنا, کترانا, راستہ کترانا

dodge in Bengali

ছল, চাতুর্য, টালা, টাল খাওয়া

More languagesFewer languages

dodge in Malayalam: തെന്നിമാറുക, കളളത്തരം കാട്ടുക, വഞ്ചിക്കുക, ദ്വയാർത്ഥപ്രയോഗം നടത്തുക
dodge in Kannada: ನುಣುಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳು, ತಪ್ಪಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳು, ಜಾರಿಕೊಳ್ಳು, ಹೊರಳಿಕೊ
dodge in Nepali: छल्नु chalnu, छक्क्याउनु chakkyāunu
dodge in Thai: หลบ lòp, หลีก lìik, เลี่ยง lîiang
dodge in Vietnamese: tránh, né

Examples of dodge in a sentence

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.1859 December 13, Charles Dickens, “The Ghost in Master B’s Room”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Haunted House. The Extra Christmas...
He knows everybody, and is up to all the dodges of editorial management and newspaper cliques.1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan: or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire […], 1st American edition, New...

All 40 example sentences with dodge

Synonyms of dodge

All synonyms of dodge

Forms of dodge

Verb
third-person singular present	dodges
present participle	dodging
past participle	dodged
past	dodged
Noun
plural	dodges
Adjective
comparative	more dodge
superlative	most dodge
Proper noun
plural	Dodges

Past tense of dodge: dodged

Plural of dodge: dodges

Origin of 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”).

From a Middle English diminutive form of Roger.

Words formed from dodge

Phrases with dodge

Words that rhyme with dodge

Questions about dodge

What does dodge mean?: Dodge means to avoid (something) by moving suddenly out of the way.
What is dodge in Tamil?: Dodge in Tamil is ஏமாற்று, ஏய், தட்டிக் கழி. See Dodge meaning in Tamil.
How do you use dodge in a sentence?: 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.
What part of speech is dodge?: Dodge can be a verb, a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dodge?: Dodge is pronounced /dɒd͡ʒ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of dodge?: The past tense of dodge is dodged.

Words near dodge in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-dodge.ogg.

Cite this entry: “dodge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dodge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.