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.
She said her son, who had a life-long passion for cars, was the "most loving, laid-back, sensitive man" who was a doting father to his own son.
From BBC
However, Miranda added that the doting mother had "recovered well from her ordeal".
From BBC
The more George dotes on her, the more she tries to squirm free from the prison that has been prepared for her.
From Los Angeles Times
We’re a long way from Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post portraits of doting parents taking their rosy-cheeked children to the avuncular family doctor for back-to-school checkups.
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
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.
