dotardly (dotardli)

Like a dotard; weak. dotardy (dō'tär-di), n. [ dote hand, + ching, weigh.] The name given in the south of China to the portable steelyard in use throughout China and the adjoining countries. In the smaller kinds, used for weighing silver Dotchin, showing ingots of silver in the scale. (sycee), medicines, etc., the beam is of ivory or bone; in the larger ones, used in shops and for general marketing, it is of wood. Those in use in Hong kong are graduated for both English and Chinese weights. dotel (dot), v.; pret. and pp. doted, ppr. doting. [Also doat; like a fool. He wol maken him doten anon ryght. Chaucer, Prol. to Canon's Yeoman's Tale, 1. 430. Wise men will deme it we dote , But if we make ende of oure note. York Plays , p. 305. 2. To be silly or weak-minded from age; have the intellect impaired by age, so that the mind wanders or wavers. He dredes no dynt that dotes for elde. Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), iii. 125. Time has made you dote , and vainly tell Of arms imagined in your lonely cell. Dryden. When an old Woman begins to doat , and grow chargeable to a Parish, she is generally turned into a Witch. Add is on, Spectator, No. 117. Wilhelm, Count Berlifitzing, was, at the epoch of this narrative, an infirm and doting old man. Poe , Tales, I. 476. 3. To bestow exce ive love; lavish extravagant fondne or liking: with on or upon: as, to dote on a sweetheart; he dotes upon oysters. Aholah.. doted on her lovers, on the A yrians. Ezek. xxiii. 5. No Man ever more loved, nor le doated upon a Wife than he [Henry IV.]. Baker , Chronicles, p. 166. O Death all-eloquent! you only prove What dust we dote on , when 'tis man we love. Pope , Eloisa to Abelard, 1. 336. 4. To decay, as a tree. [Prov. Eng.] The seed of thorn in it wol dede and dote . Palladius , Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 28. II.t trans. To love to exce . Why wilt thou dote thyself Out of thy life? Hence, get thee to bed. Beau . and Fl ., Maid's Tragedy, iii. 2. Why, know love doats the fates, Jove groanes beneath his waight. Marston , Soph on isba, v. 1.