dote
Americanverb (used without object)
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to bestow or express excessive love or fondness habitually (usually followed by on orupon ).
They dote on their youngest daughter.
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to show a decline of mental faculties, especially associated with old age.
noun
verb
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to love to an excessive or foolish degree
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to be foolish or weak-minded, esp as a result of old age
Other Word Forms
- doter noun
Etymology
Origin of dote
1175–1225; Middle English doten “to behave foolishly, become feeble-minded”; cognate with Middle Dutch doten
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.
Martin, from Woodford Green, east London, was described in court as a "doting and loving grandmother" who had mobility issues that left her with a limp.
From BBC
The lawyer said Tipping was an avid outdoorsman and a doting son to both his parents.
From Los Angeles Times
She softens the character’s steely edges, turning a proud and almost rapacious woman into a mere doting mom.
Deciphering whether Kim Jong Un is merely a doting father or a long-term planner is what has drawn intense debate.
It’s not clear why the doting parents were both absent, “but we are sure they had their reasons as they have been incubating the eggs faithfully,” the nonprofit wrote in its “Eagle Log.”
From Los Angeles Times
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.
