- to shake or tremble, as from old age
- to be unsteady; totter
Origin of dodderMiddle English daderen, akin to Old English dyderian, to confuse, delude, Middle Dutch doten, dote from Indo-European an unverified form dheudh-, to whirl in confusion, shake (from source Classical Greek thysanos, fringe) from base an unverified form dheu-; see dull
Origin of dodderMiddle English doder from Late Old English dodder from same base as dodder: akin to dialect, dialectal dodder, quaking-grass and German dotter, egg yolk
intransitive verbdod·dered, dod·der·ing, dod·ders
- To shake or tremble, as from old age; totter.
- To move in a feeble, unsteady manner.
Origin of dodderAlteration of Middle English daderen probably of imitative origin
Origin of dodderMiddle English doder possibly from Middle Dutch yolk of an egg (from the yellow color of the blossom of one species of this plant)
(third-person singular simple present dodders, present participle doddering, simple past and past participle doddered)
Middle English daderen (“to quake, tremble”)
- Any of about 100-170 species of yellow, orange or red (rarely green) parasitic plants of the genus Cuscuta. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutaceae, recent genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has shown that it is correctly placed in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae.