dodo

[doh-doh]

noun

plural

dodos, dodoes 

1. any of several clumsy, flightless, extinct birds of the genera Raphus and Pezophaps, related to pigeons but about the size of a turkey, formerly inhabiting the islands of Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodriguez.

2. Slang.,  a dull-witted, slow-reacting person.

3. a person with old-fashioned, conservative, or outmoded ideas.

4. a thing that is outmoded or obsolete.

dodo

/ ˈdəʊdəʊ /

noun

1. any flightless bird, esp Raphus cucullatus, of the recently extinct family Raphidae of Mauritius and adjacent islands: order Columbiformes (pigeons, etc). They had a hooked bill, short stout legs, and greyish plumage See also ratite

2. informal,  an intensely conservative or reactionary person who is unaware of changing fashions, ideas, etc

3. (of a person or thing) irretrievably defunct or out of date

Other Word Forms

• dodoism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of dodo¹

First recorded in 1620–30, dodo is from the Portuguese word doudo, fool, madman (of uncertain origin); the bird apparently so called from its clumsy appearance

Word History and Origins

Origin of dodo¹

C17: from Portuguese doudo, from doudo stupid

Idioms and Phrases

see under dead as a doornail.

Example Sentences

“Or else both will go extinct, like the dodos?”

Read more on Literature

She knew the Latin phrase “tempus fugit,” which means “time flies,” like a bird—but there were flightless birds, after all: ostriches and emus and dodos and so on.

Read more on Literature

Besides, after coming face-to-face with an ostrich, anything short of a dodo was bound to be a letdown.

Read more on Literature

The Hall of Extinction and Hope analogizes manmade climate change and habitat destruction to a slow-moving asteroid that has already obliterated species such as the passenger pigeon, dodo and great auk.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The company’s other de-extinction hopes include reviving the woolly mammoth, the dodo, and the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• clodpoll