Word.ws English Dictionary

dottle

/ˈdɒtəl/

dottle noun: a plug or tap of a vessel.

Noun (1)

dottle (plural dottles)

  1. A plug or tap of a vessel.
  2. A small rounded lump or mass.
  3. The still burning or wholly burnt tobacco plug in a pipe.
    • In refilling a pipe, where twist is smoked, a common practice is to save the dottle and put it on the top of the new-filled pipe. "Aw like a baccy dottle to leet wiv."1892, Richard Oliver Heslop, Northumberland Words. English Dialect Society - Kegan Paul et al.
    • one hand guards the burning dottle of my pipe from the force of the wind1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine, Faber, page 96
  4. (Geordie) A baby's dummy, pacifier.

Verb

dottle (third-person singular simple present dottles, present participle dottling, simple past and past participle dottled)

  1. To set pottery flatware horizontally on thimbles.

Adjective

dottle (comparative more dottle, superlative most dottle)

  1. (Scotland) Stupid or senile.
    • When days and years proclaim you’re old —
      A dottle, cripple, gouty fellow,
      Then for support you can lay hold
      O’ the upright of your umberella.1893, David Herschell Edwards, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets: With Biographical and Critical Notices, volume 15, page 403

Noun (2)

dottle (plural dottles)

  1. (Scotland) A dotard.
    Synonyms:
    dodipole, dotel

Examples of dottle in a sentence

  • I clenched my pipe in my right fist and poked at the dottle busily with various fingers, first one then another, of my left hand.1981, John Gardner, Freddy's Book, Abacus, published 1982, page 38:
  • He tapped out the dottle on the deck, locked the steering oar in position, and commenced repacking his pipe.1984, Alan Dean Foster, The Hour of the Gate, page 89:
  • I fiddle and scrape and poke for a while, banging out the dottle from my previous pipeful into an ashtray and puffing down the stem like a horn player warming up his trumpet.2010, Stephen Fry, The Fry Chronicles:

Synonyms of dottle

Forms of dottle

Noun
pluraldottles
alternative formdottel
Verb
third-person singular presentdottles
present participledottling
past participledottled
pastdottled
Adjective
comparativemore dottle
superlativemost dottle

Origin of dottle

From Middle English dottel, dottelle (“a plug or tap of a vessel”), a diminutive of Old English dott (> English dot (“a point”)), equivalent to dot + -le. Related to Old English dyttan (“to stop up, clot”), Dutch dot (“a knot, lump, clod”), Low German Dutte (“a plug”). More at dit.

Related to dote, dotard.

Words that rhyme with dottle

Questions about dottle

What does dottle mean?
Dottle means a plug or tap of a vessel.
How do you use dottle in a sentence?
I clenched my pipe in my right fist and poked at the dottle busily with various fingers, first one then another, of my left hand.
What part of speech is dottle?
Dottle can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce dottle?
Dottle is pronounced /ˈdɒtəl/ (UK).
What is the plural of dottle?
The plural of dottle is dottles.

Words near dottle in the dictionary

  1. dotting and carrying
  2. dotting down
  3. dotting the i's
  4. dotting the i's and crossing the t's
  5. dottings
  6. dottle
  7. dottled
  8. dottler
  9. dottlers
  10. dottles
  11. dottling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dottle (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-dottle.wav.

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