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

Kindell, who once made all his dough by hand – until an elbow tendon injury forced him to investigate using machines instead, is now working on his own version of a pizza-making robot.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

All the introverted Tucker had to do was be his normal self with the understanding that no one expected him to live up to that Ohtani-type contract, that Juan Soto-esque dough, that Aaron Judge-level cheddar.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

Fill and roll: Spread the filling over the dough, leaving a small border.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

Spicy, sweet and curiously chewy, Chinese latiao -- literally "spicy strips" -- are made by cooking wheat flour dough at a high temperature and pressure.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

“No double-scoop cookie dough on a sugar cone? With sprinkles? What happened?”

From "Maybe He Just Likes You" by Barbara Dee

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

But if you want a Moto pizza bad enough, go right when the doors open at 4 p.m. because the crew sets aside a few extra doughs for walk-ins.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 4, 2023

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

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

The proportion of these ingredients that is usually effective in batters and doughs for hot breads is 1 level teaspoonful of soda to 1 pint of sour milk.

From Woman's Institute Library of Cookery Volume 1: Essentials of Cookery; Cereals; Bread; Hot Breads by Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

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