dotterel

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dotterel

/ˈdɒtɹəl/

Where it comes from

15th century. From dote (“to be foolish; senile”) + -rel (“pejorative suffix”). The bird is so named as it is easy to catch.

noun dotterels

A gullible fool, especially an elderly person with impaired faculties. This poor dotterel, Sir Arthur, is playing fast and loose with me.
Similar: dotard
A small brown-and-black bird of species Charadrius morinellus, of the plover family.
Similar: Eurasian dotterel
Australia, New Zealand Any of various small birds of Australasia thought to resemble the Eurasian dotterel.

Similar: dote

adjective more dotterel · most dotterel

decayed some old dotterel trees

Thesaurus

noun

Similar: dote

Translations

Every language

noun bird in the plover family Charadriidae

Español	chorlito carambolo
中文	小嘴鴴 /小嘴鸻 xiǎozuǐhéng
Português	borrelho
Ελληνικά	βουνοσφυριχτής vounosfyrichtís
Română	prundăraș de munte, ploier de munte
Русский	ржа́нка ržánka, хрустан xrustan

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MLA

"dotterel." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/dotterel. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

dotterel. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/dotterel

Chicago

"dotterel." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/dotterel.

BibTeX

@misc{dotterel_2026,
  title = {dotterel},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dotterel},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}