Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A child's usually small toy having the likeness of a human.
- n. A pretty child.
- n. Slang An attractive person.
- n. Slang A woman.
- n. Slang A sweetheart or darling.
- n. Slang A helpful or obliging person.
- doll up Slang To dress oneself smartly and often ostentatiously, especially for a special occasion.
- doll up Slang To add embellishing details to in order to make much more attractive.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A sweetheart; a mistress; a paramour; a doxy. Also dolly.
- n. A puppet representing a child, usually a little girl (but also sometimes a boy or a man, as a soldier, etc.), used as a toy by children, especially by girls.
- n. Dung, especially of pigeons.
- n. A large cake of sawdust mixed with dung, used for fuel.
- n. A large lump.
- n. A simple contrivance on a Jacquard loom which indicates to the weaver that something is wrong with the action of the pattern-card cylinder. Also called detector and blockhead-board.
Wiktionary
- n. A toy in the form of human.
- n. informal Used to refer to or address a woman.
- n. Australia A term of endearment (ie. darling).
- v. intransitive To cause to be more beautiful of attractive. See also doll up.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. a small, usually flexible figure representing a human being, especially a toy baby for a little girl; a child's puppet.
- n. slang an attractive woman or girl.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a small replica of a person; used as a toy
- n. informal terms for a (young) woman
Etymologies
- From Doll, a popular pet form of Dorothy. (Wiktionary)
- From Doll, nickname for Dorothy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I adore the paper doll one... *wonders if Little Owl would allow me to draw him as a paper owl doll*”
“Attention is called to the difficulty of drawing the line between a doll and an idol among primitive peoples, the connection of dolls with religion, psychological evidence of which lingers with us to-day in the persistent folk-etymology which connects _doll_ with _idol_.”
“Several boys began to sing along in a mocking tone, dragging out the word doll until it became two syllables: “William wants a do-oll, William wants a do-oll.””
“The name kouklitas comes from the Greek word for doll, koukla —which can also be used in the sense of "pretty girl" or "girlfriend," much like the English word "doll.”
“The Bella doll is the only doll I have ever seen that is prettier than the actual person.”
“Not attractive, neither he nor the doll is attractive”
“Your doll is amazing with all the beads you've used.”
“She undressed the not-so-jolly green giant only to discover that the doll is anatomically correct.”
“Daisy had truly appreciated Patty's generosity in the matter of the note but she couldn't gracefully submit to having her own brunette beauty eclipsed by what she called a doll-face.”
“The toilette of this most amazing doll is completed by a wonderful wig of soft pink curls, which are kept in place by a meshed cap of brillian [t] s.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘doll’.
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old timey talk
Words or Sayings from the 1920's or whatever that no one really uses anymore (at least in that context).
scram, bearcat, heavens to betsy, dick, double-cross, ducky, gams, goofy, hooch, jalopy, john, joe and 174 more...
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EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
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SCIE - neurology
abducens.....draw..., ablation.....carr..., acetylcholine......., adrenalin.....nea..., afferent.....to c..., agnosia.....no kn..., alar.....wing-like, alexia.....no words, alveus.....canal, amacrine.....no l..., ambidextrous........, ambiguus.....doub... and 701 more...
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Playthings and Toys
have fun!
battledore, beanbag, bicycle, Big Wheel, crayons, boomerang, cap gun, doll, kite, jigsaw puzzle, hula hoop, jack-in-the-box and 66 more...
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Cute words. :D
the name says it all ^
warble, fuzzy, foofy, buff, cuddle, ding dong, clumsy, ballistic, balling, pudgy, zing, doll and 4 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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Holli
Cancer, Mercury, water, moon, dark, emotion, nostalgia, angst, brooding, isolation, shadow, corner and 145 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
Alternate
vixen, dulcet, iridescent, maiden, elysian, rhapsody, doll, ambrosia, azalea, daisy, holly, star and 8 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
franky's Words
formitastic, human resources, cocktail, gravatar, tequila, twitter, moloko, gmail, beeb, mp3, cover art, thumbnail and 184 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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Jane Eyre
abigail, sanguine, chancel, bourne, peremptorily, parley, unwonted, fagging, convolvuli, tarry, insuperable, execrations and 190 more...
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loinfruit's Words
buddy, hungry, hug, want, you, i, mommy, school, ballet, sign, sign language, language and 170 more...
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Nullologue
nullologue, vaudeville, debauchery, debauched, libertine, nothing, dhadak, tz pf, nothingology, goodbyeology, sharmuta, manifesto and 866 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for doll.

qroqqa What we need is a historical reverse dictionary of meanings. 'Doll' was only used in the modern sense from about 1700 (and was cant at first); 'poppet' was used in this sense from about the fifteenth century; so what did English children play with before? Aug 22, 2008