doughty
/ˈdaʊti/US/ˈdaʊti/
doughty adjective: bold; brave, courageous.
Adjective
doughty (comparative doughtier or more doughty, superlative doughtiest or most doughty)
- Bold; brave, courageous.
- Hurriedly he snatched up others, one or two at a time, until he had slaughtered thirty of Hrothgar's doughtiest earls.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 21
- [S]he [Edwina, mother of Tennessee Williams] was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams's play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible.2014 November 14, Blake Bailey, “‘Tennessee Williams,’ by John Lahr [print version: Theatrical victory of art over life, International New York Times, 18 November 2014, page 13]”, in The New York...
- Synonyms:
- dauntless, fearless, intrepid, resolute, stouthearted, valiant, adventurous, mettlesome, aweless, bad
- Antonyms:
- backboneless, base, soft, bitch-ass, boneless, caitiff, candy-assed, chicken, chicken-hearted, chicken-livered
- Robust, sturdy; strong and perhaps stout.
- Aye, here's a ship of doughty build and strong: But not for lads like you to sail to port.1937, Edward Mellor Jameson, Charterhouse
- One can imagine the enthusiasm with which this young man in his thirties, and not the fat and doughty Quakerish-looking gentleman usually portrayed in the popular picture of Penn as Proprietor, must have entered upon this great adventure.1956, Sylvester Kirby Stevens, Pennsylvania, The Keystone State
- Catachresis for dowdy.
Noun
doughty (plural doughties)
Proper noun capitalized: Doughty
Doughty (plural Doughtys)
- A surname transferred from the nickname.
doughty meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
doughty in Tamil
- துணிவு மிக்க
doughty in Urdu
- بہادر, دلیر, نڈر, شجاع
doughty in Bengali
- সাহসী, বলবান
doughty in Malayalam
- dauntless, fearless, determined
- വീരനായ, സാഹസികനായ, ശൗര്യമുള്ള, പരാക്രമിയായ, അഭയ, അഭീ
More languagesFewer languages
- doughty in Kannada
- ಕೆಚ್ಚೆದೆಯ, ಕೂರು
Examples of doughty in a sentence
- The experience was something like going before the Daughters of the American Revolution and advocating communism; but then, doughty matronly bosoms always intimidate me.1964, Japan Quarterly:
- Her remark invited a deeper look into her face, which seemed to flicker between that of a puckish, energetic man and a rather doughty, sturdy-looking woman.1997 December 22, Sarah Boxer, “At Dinner With: Jan Morris; Writer With a Favorite Theme: Reconciliation of Opposites”, in New York Times:
Synonyms of doughty
19 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
- backboneless
- base
- soft
- bitch-ass
- boneless
- caitiff
- candy-assed
- chicken
- chicken-hearted
- chicken-livered
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of doughty
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | doughtier |
| comparative | more doughty |
| superlative | doughtiest |
| superlative | most doughty |
| alternative form (obsolete) | doubty |
| Noun | |
| plural | doughties |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Doughtys |
| alternative form | Doughtie |
| alternative form | Douty |
| alternative form | Dufty |
Origin of doughty
The adjective is derived from Middle English doughty (“brave, bold, valiant”), from Old English dohtiġ, dyhtiġ (“competent, good, strong, valiant”), from Proto-West Germanic *duhtīg. The English word may be analysed as dought + -y, and is cognate with Scots douchty, douchtie (“bold, valiant”), Dutch duchtig (“severe, strict”), German tüchtig (“capable, competent, efficient; big; hard”), Danish dygtig (“virtuous, proficient”), Swedish duktig (“efficient; good; capable, clever, smart”), Icelandic dygðugur (“virtuous, stable”). The noun is derived from the adjective.
From doughty, a nickname for a powerful and brave man, especially a champion jouster.
Words formed from doughty
- dought
- doughtily
- doughtiness
- doughty-handed
- undoughty
Words that rhyme with doughty
Questions about doughty
- What does doughty mean?
- Doughty means bold; brave, courageous.
- What is doughty in Tamil?
- Doughty in Tamil is துணிவு மிக்க. See Doughty meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use doughty in a sentence?
- The experience was something like going before the Daughters of the American Revolution and advocating communism; but then, doughty matronly bosoms always intimidate me.
- What part of speech is doughty?
- Doughty can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce doughty?
- Doughty is pronounced /ˈdaʊti/ (UK).
Words near doughty in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: doughty (page history and authors); Doughty (page history and authors); doughty (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); doughty (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); doughty (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); doughty (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); doughty (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-doughty.oga.
Cite this entry: “doughty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/doughty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.