dottle

American  

[dot-l] / ˈdɒt l /

Or dottel

noun

1. the plug of half-smoked tobacco in the bottom of a pipe after smoking.

---

dottle British  

/ ˈdɒtəl /

noun

1. the plug of tobacco left in a pipe after smoking

---

Etymology

Origin of dottle

1815–25; dial. dot small lump (probably identical with dot ¹ ) + -le

Explanation

Use the noun dottle to describe the leftover, unburnt tobacco that's left in a pipe after it's been smoked. Your grandfather might knock the dottle from his pipe into the kitchen trash can every afternoon. Dottle is a very old-fashioned word that's specific to a fairly old-fashioned activity, pipe smoking. A well-packed pipe is meant to burn all the tobacco in its bowl, but sometimes there's a damp wad of smelly dottle left behind. The word, which is rarely used these days, was originally dossil, from the French word dosil, "a spigot or plug in a vessel." It became a pipe-smoking term in the early nineteenth century.

Example Sentences

At his Pentagon desk, Burke smacks the dottle from his pipe against his heavy Annapolis ring, looks far beyond today's Navy and sees Nautilus as the forerunner of the all nuclear fleet.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nearly anyone could be a ventriloquist if one's dummy talked like this: "How 'dout a dottle of deer?"

From Time Magazine Archive

And there is Grandma from Sweden who chews pipe dottle and comes to Denmark fully intending to die, but lives on to plague and embarrass the boy's mother with her unhousebroken back-country habits.

From Time Magazine Archive

The author of Crazy Like a Fox and Chicken Inspector No. 23 and the maestro of words such as wattles and dottle, boffin and horripilating was surely up to the challenge.

From Time Magazine Archive

“Never heard of the boss calkin’ the chaney man before,” remarked Martin McCrackin, rapping his pipe against his peg-leg to dislodge the dottle.

From King Spruce, A Novel by Day, Holman