dough

American  

[doh] / doʊ /

noun

• doughs
  plural

1. flour or meal combined with water, milk, etc., in a mass for baking into bread, cake, etc.; paste of bread.

2. any similar soft, pasty mass.

3. Slang. money.

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dough British  

/ dəʊ /

noun

1. a thick mixture of flour or meal and water or milk, used for making bread, pastry, etc

2. any similar pasty mass

3. a slang word for money

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• doughlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• doughs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of dough

before 1000; Middle English do ( u ) gh, do ( u ) h, dou ( e ), Old English dāg, dāh; cognate with Dutch deeg, Old Norse deig, Gothic daigs, German Teig

Explanation

Dough is a thick mixture of flour and other ingredients that can be kneaded, baked, and eaten. Bread dough needs to rise before you bake it in a hot oven. Many baked goods begin their lives as dough, including bread, rolls, and some cookies. Dough is stiff enough that you can shape it, pull pieces off of it, stretch it and knead it. Informally, dough can also mean "money." If your friend says, "I make so much dough waiting tables!" he probably means money, not cookie dough. The word comes from an Indo-European root that means "smear" or "knead."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dough doughs

In the past, Laenen said, managing the dough on the production line was done by look and feel.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

“Doughmakers” in the factories would grab a piece of dough off the production line, stretch it out, or grab chips after they come out of the fryer and weigh and measure them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

New sensors and live machine data were integrated to create live digital versions of the dough, capturing minute variances in raw materials—like the particle size of the flour.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

Those distinct layers of chilled dough and butter are what create puff pastry’s dramatic height, so if the sheet begins to feel limp or greasy, return it to the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes.

From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026

She rolled her hands over the dough, working it out toward both its ends, until eventually it was long and snakelike.

From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack

You also need time: Almost all doughs in the book require at least an overnight fermentation to improve their flavor, rise and handling capability.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

We can flavor doughs that we might normally think of as sweeter, or even just, they might not actually have any sugar in them, but we might equate them with desserts.

From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2022

If you have storage space, you can make most cookie doughs and refrigerate or even freeze them.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 5, 2022

The highly rated Artisan Series 5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer in Empire Red from KitchenAid can produce nine dozen cookies in a single take, as well as cakes, doughs and other torments for the Keto-obsessed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2022

These doughs are made light or leavened by the use of eggs, baking soda, baking powder and steam created in baking and by air beaten into the mixture.

From Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book Numerous New Recipes Based on Present Economic Conditions by Wilson, Mary A.

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