dote

• doat (obsolete)

• enPR: dōt
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dəʊt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /doʊt/
• Rhymes: -əʊt

The verb is derived from Middle English doten, from Middle Low German doten (“to be foolish”) or Middle Dutch doten (“to be silly”). Doublet of doit (Scottish English).

The noun in the sense of "imbecile" is derived from Middle English dote (“simpleton”), itself from doten (see above). The noun in the sense of "darling" and "decay" is derived from the modern verb.

dote (third-person singular simple present dotes, present participle doting, simple past and past participle doted)

1. (intransitive, stative, usually with on) To be weakly or foolishly fond of somebody.

   Synonyms: adore, love

   Little Bill's parents just keep doting on him.

   • 2010, Jennifer Egan, “A to B”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad:

     Jules doted on Chris, spending hours while Chris was at school assembling vast cities out of microscopic Lego pieces to surprise him when he returned.

2. (intransitive, archaic) To act in a foolish manner; to be senile.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, “Ill-disposed Affections […] ”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     He survived the use of his reason, grew infatuated, and doted long before he died.

   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Time has made you dote, and vainly tell / Of arms imagined in your lonely cell.

3. (intransitive, of trees, rare or obsolete) To rot, decay.

• (be foolishly fond of): dote over
• (act in a foolish manner): dotard, dotterel
• dotage, fordote

dote (countable and uncountable, plural dotes)

1. (countable, Ireland) A darling, a cutie.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[13]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     But to be sure baby Boardman was as good as gold, a perfect little dote in his new fancy bib.

2. (countable, obsolete) An imbecile; a dotard.
   • 1630, Tinker of Turvey:

     How did his death-bed make him a doate!

3. (uncountable, rare) Decay in a tree.

• (dotard): dobby, mimmerkin; see also Thesaurus:dotard

From Middle English dote (“endowment”) (c. 1450), from Middle French dote (modern dot), from Latin dos.

dote (plural dotes)

1. (obsolete) Dowry.

From Middle French doter, Latin dōtāre.

dote (third-person singular simple present dotes, present participle doting, simple past and past participle doted)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To endow, donate.

• tode, toed

• IPA^(key): /dɔt/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

dote

1. inflection of doter:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

From Latin dotem.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔ.te/
• Rhymes: -ɔte
• Hyphenation: dò‧te

dote f (plural doti)

1. dowry, dower
2. gift, talent

• dotale

dōte

1. ablative singular of dōs

• "dote", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

A back-formation from doten.

• doote

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔːt(ə)/

dote

1. An idiot or imbecile; a dotard.
2. A senile individual; an elderly person lacking sound mind.

• English: dote

• “dōte, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 August 2018.

dote

1. alternative form of doten

Borrowed from Latin dōs, dōtem, from Proto-Italic *dōtis, from Proto-Indo-European *déh₃tis (“act of giving”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈdote/

dote m or f

1. dowry

   Synonyms: arra, arrás

   • ca. 1480, Ordenanzas reales de Castilla. Huete, Álvaro de Castro, 1484. BNM I1338, fol. 243r., (ed. by Ivy A. Corfis, 1995, Madison: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies):

     E sy fijos non ouiere que pierda todos sus bienes las dos partes para la nuestra camara & la otra terçia parte para acusador. E estos bienes que asy se perdieren se entiendan sacadas las debdas & sacado el dote & arras de su muger.

     And if he does not have issue (children), he shall lose all his possessions. Two thirds shall go to our chamber, and the third to the accuser [of blasphemy]. And by these possessions thus lost, his debts shall be considered solved, along with the dowry and downpayment of his wife.

   • 1491, Alfonso X, Siete Partidas (BNM I 766), (ed. by Pedro Sánchez Prieto, 2004, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares):

     Ley sesta. como la dote o el arra que resçibe el padre por su fijo o por su fija no deue venir a partiçion entre los otros hermanos.

     Law 6. How the dowry or downpayment that a father receives for [the marriage of] his son or daughter shall not be split among the other siblings.

• Spanish: dote

From Latin dos.

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ɔt͡ʃi, (Portugal) -ɔtɨ

dote m (plural dotes)

1. foundation (legacy constituting a permanent fund of a charity)
2. dowry (property or payment given at time of marriage)
3. (figuratively, chiefly in the plural) talent

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

dote

1. inflection of dotar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “dote”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “dote”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “dote”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN
• “dote”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• IPA^(key): /ˈdote/ [ˈd̪o.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -ote
• Syllabification: do‧te

Inherited from Old Spanish dote (“dowry”, masculine or feminine noun), borrowed from Latin dōtem. Doublet of dosis.

dote f (plural dotes)

1. dowry
2. talent

• → Tagalog: dote

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

dote

1. inflection of dotar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “dote”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Borrowed from Spanish dote, from Old Spanish dote, borrowed from Latin dōtem. Doublet of dosis.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈdote/ [ˈd̪oː.t̪ɛ]
• Rhymes: -ote
• Syllabification: do‧te

dote (Baybayin spelling ᜇᜓᜆᜒ)

1. dowry; bride price

   Synonyms: bigay-kaya, pasalap, ubad, (Batangas) bilang

• “dote”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, 2018

dote

1. plural of dota