dotard (dotard)

and a. [Also dial. (in 3d sense) dottard; And thoug this flaterynge freres wyln for her pride Disputen of this deyte as dotardes schulden, The more the matere is moved the [masedere hy] worthen. Piers Plowman's Crede (E. E. T. S.), 1. 825. The nonsense of Hero dot us is that of a baby. The nonsense of Xenophon is that of a dotard. Macaulay, History. 2. One who is foolishly fond; one who dotes. -3. An aged, decaying tree. [Prov. Eng.] And for great trees, we see almost all overgrown trees, in church-yards, or near ancient buildings and the like, are pollards, or dotards, and not trees at their full height. Bacon, Nat. Hist,, § 586. II. a. 1. Doting; imbecile. The shaft of scorn that once had stung But wakes a dotard smile. Tennyson, Ancient Sage. 2. Decayed, as a tree. [Prov. Eng.] Manie dottarde and decayde trees are within divers mannors surveyde, which are contynuallie wrongful lie taken by the tenauntes. Lansdowne MS . (1613), 165. [ dotard + -ly1.]