▪ I. dodger, n.
(ˈdɒdʒə(r))
[f. dodge v. + -er1.]
1. One who dodges, in various senses of the vb.; in early use, esp. a haggler; later, esp. one who practises artful shifts or dodges.
| 1568 T. Harding Detect. Foul Err. 226 By this a man may know what a Dodger you are, and whence your great bookes procede. 1598 Florio, Auarone, a pinch penie, a paltrer, a dodger, a miser, a penie father. 1611 Cotgr., Cagueraffe, a base micher, scuruie hagler, lowsie dodger. 1704 Hearne Duct. Hist. (1714) I. 156 Tacitus has no good Morals; He is a great Dodger..he always speaks more out of Policy than according to Truth. 1824 Scott St. Ronan's xxviii, ‘A shy cock, this Frank Tyrrel..a very complete dodger!.. I shall wind him, were he to double like a fox.’ 1838 Dickens O. Twist viii, Among his intimate friends he was better known by the sobriquet of ‘The artful Dodger’. |
2. a. U.S. A hard-baked corn-cake.
| 1831 J. M. Peck Guide for Emigrants ii. 152 Dodgers are masses [of corn meal] like small loaves of bread, prepared in a similar manner [i.e. with water or milk], and baked in the spider or skillet. 1832 F. Trollope Dom. Manners Amer. I. 83 Hoe cake, johnny cake, waffle cake, and dodger cake. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. iv, Corn-cake, in all its varieties of hoe-cake, dodgers, muffins. 1882 Garden 13 May 327/1, I prospered rarely in the South on ‘dodgers’. |
b. A sandwich; bread, food. Austral. and Services' slang. Also dial. (cf. dodge n.2).
| 1919 Downing Digger Dial. 19 Dodger, bread. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 79 A dodger..a sandwich. 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 24 Dodger, food of any kind. Also, a ‘yunk of dodger’, a slice of bread. 1957 ‘N. Culotta’ They're a Weird Mob (1958) 51 Smack us in the eye with another hunk o' dodger. 1966 ‘L. Lane’ ABZ of Scouse II. 27 Dodger, bread or sometimes crude cake. ‘Gimme a slice er dodger.’ |
3. U.S. A small handbill or circular.
| 1884 Fargo (Dakota) Broadaxe 7 Apr., With dodgers of warning distributed at the different polling-places. 1888 Boston Jrnl. 11 Feb. 5/4, I never in my life used such a thing as a poster, a dodger or a handbill. |
4. Salt-making. (See quot.) Cf. dodge v. 10.
| 1884 Cheshire Gloss., Dodger, salt-making term; a long⁓headed hammer with a long handle, used for knocking off the scale or incrustations of lime or dirt on the pan bottoms when the pan is at work; also called Dodging Hammer. |
5. On a ship: a screen to afford protection from spray, etc. Also, a protective shield used on a rocket, etc.
| 1898 C. J. C. Hyne Capt. Kettle x. 260 Under shelter of the dodgers on the upper bridge. Ibid. 262 Kettle hung on behind the canvas dodgers at the weather end of the bridge. 1942 Masefield Generation Risen 42 Sprays are freezing on the dodger. 1956 Jrnl. Brit. Interplan. Soc. XV. 126 A dodger or shield had been placed at some distance from the thrust-balance. 1959 P. McCutchan Storm South vi. 75 Wynton took..shelter..behind a canvas dodger secured to the weather mizzen rigging. |
▪ II. dodger, a. Austral. slang.
(ˈdɒdʒə(r))
[Orig. unknown.]
Good, excellent.
| 1941 in Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 24. 1953 D. Stivens Gambling Ghost 1 Instead of having to risk a knock on the Pearly Gates everything was dodger. |