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dough

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dough

  • /dəʊ/ UK
  • /doʊ/ US
  • [ˈdö̞ʷʊ̯ʷ] US
  • /dʊf/ Northern England
  • /ɖo/ South Asia
  • /ɖəf/ South Asia

Sounds like doh, d'oh, doe, (in music) do · Rhymes with -əʊ, -ʌf

Where it comes from

From Middle English dow, dogh, dagh, from Old English dāg, from Proto-Germanic *daigaz (“dough”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to knead, form, mold”).

Cognate with Scots daich, dauch, doach (“dough”), North Frisian dii, Jai (“dough”), West Frisian daai (“dough”), Dutch deeg (“dough”), German Teig (“dough”), Low German and Luxembourgish Deeg (“dough”), Vilamovian taag (“dough”), Yiddish טייג (teyg, “dough”), Danish dej (“dough”), Faroese deiggj (“dough”), Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk deig (“dough”), Swedish deg (“dough”), Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌹𐌲𐍃 (daigs, “dough”).

The derivation of the second meaning (of money) is obscure, but dates to the mid 19th century.

noun doughs · dow · doff · duff

  1. uncountable, usually A thick, malleable substance made by mixing flour with other ingredients such as water, eggs, or butter, that is made into a particular form and then baked. Pizza dough is very stretchy.
  2. slang, uncountable, usually Money. His mortgage payments left him short on dough.
  3. US, abbreviation, clipping, countable, slang, usually Clipping of doughboy (“an infantryman”).

verb doughs · doughing · doughed · dow · doff

  1. transitive To make into dough. The flour was doughed with a suitable quantity of water.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: bread, loot, cabbage, kale, moolah, lucre, pelf, gelt, dinero, shekels, paste, gravy, pancake, brioche, pasta, wheat

Translations

Every language

noun mix of flour and other ingredients

Españolmasa, pasta, amasijo, amasadura, textal (teshtal) for tortillas, pella
한국어떡 tteok, 반죽 banjuk
日本語生地 kiji, 練り粉 neriko
中文麵團 /面团 miàntuán, 生麵糰 /生面团 shēngmiàntuán
हिन्दीलोई loī
Kiswahilimahamri, kinyunya
Portuguêsmassa, pasta
Françaispâte
DeutschTeig
Italianopasta, impasto
Ελληνικάζύμη zými, ζυμάρι zymári
Românăaluat, cocă
Русскийте́сто tésto
Tiếng Việtbột, bột nhồ, bột nhào, bột nhão
العربيةعَجِين ʕajīn, عَجِينَة ʕajīna
עבריתבָּצֵק batsék

noun money (slang)

Españolpasta, guita, plata, mosca, lana, tela
中文錢 /钱 qián, 米 mǐ
Kiswahilimahamri
Portuguêsgrana
Françaisfric, oseille, galette, pognon, blé, thune
DeutschKnete, Kohle
Italianomalloppo
Ελληνικάπαράδες parádes, φράγκα frágka
Românămălai
Русскийба́бки bábki, бабло́ babló, ба́шли bášli, бабо́сы babósy, бабу́льки babúlʹki

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MLA

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

APA

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

Chicago

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

BibTeX
@misc{dough_2026,
  title = {dough},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dough},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}