dodo
Americannoun
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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.
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Slang. a dull-witted, slow-reacting person.
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a person with old-fashioned, conservative, or outmoded ideas.
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a thing that is outmoded or obsolete.
noun
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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
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informal an intensely conservative or reactionary person who is unaware of changing fashions, ideas, etc
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(of a person or thing) irretrievably defunct or out of date
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dodo
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
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Now if the last remaining hereditary peers play their cards right, they could endure another Labour prime minister and delay their destiny to go the way of the dodo.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
I came across exactly one ultra-rare single-zero roulette wheel on the Strip, which felt a little bit like uncovering the hutch of the last surviving dodo.
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2025
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.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2025
But with the pension going the way of the dodo, planning and saving for retirement isn't your employer's problem anymore.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2024
On other recently discovered islands where protective measures did not go into effect quickly, exterminations did indeed result: one such victim, the dodo of Mauritius, has become virtually a symbol for extinction.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Another challenge for de-extinction is ensuring the well-being of the genetically engineered dodoes.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 31, 2023
Yet not much is known about how dodoes functioned in their ecosystem.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 31, 2023
The dodoes, which reproduced by laying a single egg on the ground, were also predated by other species, such as monkeys and rats, which humans brought with them.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 31, 2023
Banked with mock turtles, dodoes, lories, red and white queens, mad hatters, March hares and hookah-smoking caterpillars, she manages to make them as real as she is by making herself as unreal as they are.
From Time Magazine Archive
So with Quilp, Toots, Squeers, Pumblechook; so with giraffes, baboons, dodoes, dromedaries,—all are freaks from the æsthetic viewpoint, but think of the overflowing energy implied in creating them!
From Outlines of English and American Literature : an Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived by Long, William Joseph
But is lab-grown meat really likely to put mammoths, dodos and other exotica on the menu?
From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2023
Dr. Malcolm pointed into the corner at the dodos, who were pecking intently at bits of barbed wire and pieces of wood, crying, “Doo! Doo!” in what sounded like great excitement.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 3, 2023
The concept is still in an early theoretical stage for dodos.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2023
Perhaps I should have anticipated it; the dodos and their airport would turn out to be just one more scheme.
From Slate ● Apr. 7, 2020
His siblings nodded, and all three cooed to their dodos even more adorably than before.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
