dote

[ doht ]

/ doʊt /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR dote ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used without object), dot·ed, dot·ing. Also doat.

to bestow or express excessive love or fondness habitually (usually followed by on or upon): They dote on their youngest daughter.

to show a decline of mental faculties, especially associated with old age.

noun

decay of wood.

Words related to dote

fawn, cherish, praise, nurture, flatter, adulate, brown-nose, blandish, cajole

Words nearby dote

dotage, dotard, dotation, dotcom, dotcommer, dote, doth, dothan, doting, dotted, dotted line

Origin of dote

1175–1225; Middle English doten to behave foolishly, become feeble-minded; cognate with Middle Dutch doten.

OTHER WORDS FROM dote

dot·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for dote

We dote on goodness when it is ours and when we are allowed to put some punch into it.
Crowds|Gerald Stanley Lee
It is most wonderful that she should so dote on Benedick, whom she in all outward behaviour seemed ever to dislike.
Tales from Shakespeare|Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb
But the General really had reason to dote upon these shirts.
Tenting on the Plains|Elizabeth B. Custer
I did not know what love was, and I never intended to dote, like my poor master.
Lazarre|Mary Hartwell Catherwood

All this is nothing; because all these men, and thousands of others, dote upon you.
The Letters of Charles Dickens|Charles Dickens

British Dictionary definitions for dote

dote

now rarely doat

/ (dəʊt) /

verb (intr)

(foll by on or upon) to love to an excessive or foolish degree

to be foolish or weak-minded, esp as a result of old age

Derived forms of dote

doter or now rarely doater, noun

Word Origin for dote

C13: related to Middle Dutch doten to be silly, Norwegian dudra to shake

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012