doddle

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɒdl̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdɑd(ə)l/
• Rhymes: -ɒdəl
• Homophone: dawdle (cot–caught merger)
• Hyphenation: dod‧dle

Etymology 1

Uncertain. Possibly from dialectal English doddle (“to toddle; sway; nod drowsily”).

Noun

doddle (plural doddles)

1. (UK, Ireland, informal) A job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete or simple.

   Synonyms: breeze, cinch, piece of cake; see also Thesaurus:easy thing

   • 1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian:

     Centurion: Have you ever seen anyone crucified? / Matthias: Crucifixion's a doddle.

   • 2002 September 14, “KarstadtQuelle: Below par”, in The Economist‎^[1]:

     Retailing in Europe's biggest economy, with 82m mostly well-off people, may sound a doddle. It is not.

   • 2009, Archie Macpherson, “Thumping the Tub”, in A Game of Two Halves: The Autobiography, Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:

     He was a QC from Edinburgh, wearing the black jacket and pinstripe trousers of his trade, as if straight from court, and probably persuaded to come in the belief that if you could interest the Budhill and Springboig party in the repressive Gaullist policies in Algeria then becoming Solicitor-General was a dawdle.

Alternative forms

• dawdle

Translations

an easy task

• Russian: легкотня́ (ru) f (lexkotnjá), пустя́к (ru) m (pustják)

Verb

doddle (third-person singular simple present doddles, present participle doddling, simple past and past participle doddled)

1. To dodder.
   • 1874, Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, My Time, and what I've Done with it: An Autobiography, page 369:

     […] a doddling old grandfather to act as sheep-dog, as a toothless, barkless, harmless guardian.

2. Misspelling of dawdle.
   • 2004, Katie Lee, Sandstone Seduction: Rivers and Lovers, Canyons and Friends:

     Usually we doddled, stopping to flush quail or dove for dinner, skeet-shooting our beer bottles, and watering the cacti.

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

doddle (plural doddles)

1. A hornless animal; a pollard or doddy.

See also

• doodle