dottle

noun /ˈdɒtəl/

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.

4. A baby's dummy, pacifier.

Where it comes from

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.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry dottle (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← dotarddouar →

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