Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the nomenclature of the spicular elements of sponges, a monaxial lance-shaped or curved rod, one end of which is sharply pointed while the other has a two- or three-edged blade.
  • noun A trick; a practical joke.
  • noun A practical joker.
  • noun A fool.
  • To hoax; humbug; make a fool of; perplex.
  • noun An abbreviation of Doric.
  • noun Alamellicorn beetle of the family Scarabæidæ, a species of dung-beetle, Geotrypes stercorarius.
  • noun A drone (bee).
  • noun The cockchafer, Melolontha vulgaris.
  • noun Also dor-beetle.
  • noun One of several ground-beetles, species of the family Carabidæ and genus Harpalus. More fully called black dor.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A trick, joke, or deception.
  • noun [Archaic] to make a fool of him.
  • transitive verb obsolete To make a fool of; to deceive.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A large European scaraboid beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius), which makes a droning noise while flying. The name is also applied to allied American species, as the June bug. Called also dorr, dorbeetle, or dorrbeetle, dorbug, dorrfly, and buzzard clock.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A large European dung beetle, Geotrupes stercorarius, that makes a droning noise while flying.
  • noun General term for flying insect which makes a loud humming noise, such as the June bug or a bumblebee.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English dorre, dore, from Old English dora ("humming insect"), from Proto-Germanic *durô (“bumblebee, humming insect”), from Proto-Indo-European *dher-, *dhrēn- (“bee, hornet, drone”). Related to Middle Low German dorne ("bumblebee"), Middle Dutch dorne ("bumblebee"), Dutch dar ("drone"), Old English drān ("drone"). More at drone.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Roma: longing without object, passion without source, yearning without end.

    June 14, 2007

  • Rod in reverse.

    November 3, 2007

  • In Romanian, this is a noun that means "the action of missing something". There is no noun for this in the English language.

    April 25, 2011

  • Missile. As in Scud.

    April 26, 2011

  • And I wanted a one-syllable word for this in a poem two months ago. Drat.

    April 26, 2011

  • Yes, but you can't beat Cent. Dict. #10: "In the nomenclature of the spicular elements of sponges, a monaxial lance-shaped or curved rod, one end of which is sharply pointed while the other has a two- or three-edged blade."

    April 26, 2011

  • I'd like a full lexicon of the spicular elements of sponges, so that I can incorporate as much of it as possible in a sonnet.

    April 26, 2011

  • Start with sponge. It's quite a read.

    April 26, 2011

  • Looking forward to that sonnet.

    April 27, 2011

  • dorre

    March 17, 2014