dozzle

English

Noun

dozzle (plural dozzles)

1. (chiefly North-country English dialectal) the tobacco left at the bottom of a pipe and put on the top of the next fill: dottle; in a general sense, a plug or a cap to top something off.
   • 1892, Richard Oliver Heslop, Northumberland Words. English Dialect Society - Kegan Paul et al.

     Neebody can smoke twist without a dozzle.

2. (chiefly North-country English dialectal) a paste flower on top of a pie cover.
3. (chiefly North-country English dialectal) the straw ornament on top of a haystack.
4. (engineering) A device, originally a heated sleave of fire clay, variously used to introduce molten metal to counter the formation of hollows in metal castings as they shrink while the mould cools. Now commonly called hot top or feeder head
   • 1913, James Rossiter Hoyle, Arthur William Brearley, “149,153 Ingot Casting Method”, in Canadian Patent Office Record, volume 41, page 2249:

     The method of preventing the formation of shrinkage cavity within bottom cast ingots which consists introducing the metal into the mould through a dozzle and a plate having a plurality of inclined conduits, whereby the incoming metal is directed against the walls of the dozzle, this heating said walls to incandescence, then reversing the mould, said dozzle after the mould is reversed causing the metal in contact therewith to feed downwards into any shrinkage cavity within the ingot.

   • 1918, Journal of the American Society of Naval Engineers, Inc, page 347:

     When the metal has risen to within, say, 3 inches of the top of the mold, a “dozzle," which has been previously heated in one of the holes, is quickly dropped on top of the metal in the mold, and held in position whilst the few pounds of metal remaining in the crucible are poured through its center.

   • 2020, Robert B. Gordon, American Iron, 1607-1900:

     They also adopted the dozzle, invented by R. F. Mushet in 1861, to eliminate piping in the steel ingots.

Synonyms

• hot top
• dottle
• feeder head

Verb

dozzle (third-person singular simple present dozzles, present participle dozzling, simple past and past participle dozzled)

1. To stupify; to render dull or insensible.
   • 1856, William Martin, “Funny Things About Bears”, in Peter Parley's Annual, page 198:

     I fetched him a topper as he rushed at me. I dipped and dived under his hind legs, threw him a summersault upon his back, and before he could recover from his surprise, I dealt him such a blow on the nape of his neck, that 'dozzled' him at once.

   • 1885, Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine, The Shadow of a Crime:

     How it dizzied and dozzled, too! And what a fratch yon was! My word! but Ralph did ding them over, both of them!

   • 2010, Sir Edward Abbott Parry, Berrington, page iii:

     There was no one staying at the inn but myself, for a fortnight of "donking dozzling" rain, interspersed with what the natives call "girt pelts," which had made the place uninhabitable to strangers and trippers.

2. To use a dozzle in order to prevent shrinkage when casting in a mold.
   • 1912, Robert Hadfield, “Method of Producing Sound Ingots”, in Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, volume 86, number 2, page 13:

     This point has long been recognised in Sheffield in the manufacture of special steels, both for small and large ingots of crucible cast steel, in which the uppor or top portion is provided with a fireclay top or "dozzler”; in other words , the ingot is “dozzled.”

   • 1918, Arthur W. Brearley, Harry Brearley, Ingots and Ingot Moulds, page 62:

     Ingots are still cast into moulds with parallel sides, but they are dozzled, and it is generally believed that the ingots so produced are quite sound.

   • 1922, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME Transactions - Volume 44, page 268:

     […] in addition to which special methods such as “dozzling” may be used to keep the top of the ingot hot as long as possible, and increase the efficiency of the ingot top in performing the functions of the sink head in molds.