ˈdodman Now dial.
[Origin unknown: connexion with dod n.3 has been suggested. Other local names are hodman-dod, hoddy-doddy.]
A snail.
| c 1550 Bale K. Johan (Camden) 7 Yt is as great pyte to se a woman wepe, As yt is to se a sely dodman creepe. 1625 Lisle Du Bartas, Noe 149 Two crooked lines, One like a crawling snake, one like a dodman twines. 1626 Bacon Sylva §732 [Animals] that cast their Shell, are; The Lobster, the Crab, the Crafish, the Hodmandod or Dodman, the Tortoise. 1633 Ames Agst. Cerem. ii. 28 Time..to pull in the hornes of this dodmons accusation. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 125 A Snayl or Dodman..is not only not warm, but to our feeling, very cold. 1674 Ray S. & E.C. Words 65 A Dodman: a shell-snail or Hodmandod, Norf. 1848 Dickens Dav. Copp. vii, ‘I'm a reg'lar Dodman’, said Mr. Peggotty, by which he meant snail. |