▪ I. dor, dorr, n.1
(dɔː(r))
Also 4–7 dorre, 5–8 dore, 7 doar.
[OE. dora: of unknown origin.]
An insect that flies with a loud humming noise.
† 1. Applied to species of bees or flies; also dor-bee, dor-fly. spec. a. A humble-bee or bumble-bee. b. A drone bee. c. A hornet. d. fig. A drone, a lazy idler. Obs.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 119 Atticus, dora. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 28 Doran huniᵹ and ticcenes ᵹeallan. Ibid., Þa ahsan ᵹemenge wið dorena huniᵹ. c 1050 Cleopatra Glosses in Wr.-Wülcker 351 Adticus, feldbeo, dora. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 6428 So dorren don and flesche fleighen. 14.. Lat. & Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 576 Crabo. a dore. c 1510 Barclay Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570) C v, If there come a hornet, a dor, or greater flye, They breake the light webbes. 1551 Robinson More's Utop. (Arb.) 38 Gentlemen which can not be content to liue idle them⁓selfes, lyke dorres. 1574 T. Hill Ord. Bees xiii, If the Dorre bees be over many in the hive..do on this maner. a 1613 J. D[ennys] Secr. Angling ii. xxxv. in Arb. Garner I. 173 With brood of wasps, of hornets, doars, or bees. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xvi, This forrest was most horribly fertile and copious in dorflies. 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 894 The Dors also and Drones they kill. 1681 J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m. iv. §14 (1689) 45 Resembling a young Dore or Humble-bee. |
2. A flying coleopterous insect or beetle; also dor-beetle, dor-fly. spec. a. The common black dung-beetle or dumble-dor (Geotrupes stercorarius), which flies after sunset. b. The cockchafer or may-bug. c. The rose-beetle. Also, vaguely, other species, chiefly of lamellicorn beetles.
| a 1450 Fysshynge w. Angle (1883) 26 In June take the creket & the dorre & also a red worme. 1598 Yong Diana 309 The dore, a little creature, so vile, and common. 1620 Markham Farew. Husb. ii. xvii. (1668) 76 The cure or prevention for these Dores, or black Clocks. 1653 Walton Angler ii. 54 The Dor or Beetle (which you may find under a Cow-turd). 1711 Phil. Trans. XXVII. 347 The next is a pale green shining Dor. 1752 Thyer Note on Milton 483 (Jod.) A brownish kind of beetle powdered with a little white, commonly known by the name of cockchaffer or dorrfly. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) II. iv. vi. 542 The May-bug, or dorr-beetle, as some call it. 1835 Browning Paracelsus v. 144 The shining dorrs are busy. 1894 Blackmore Perlycross 192 A bat, or an owl, or a big dor-beetle. |
† 3. fig. Applied to persons. Obs.
| 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. iii. iii, What should I care what every dor doth buzze In credulous eares? 1645 Milton Colast. (1851) 377 Infested, somtimes at his face, with dorrs and horsflies. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch. The Author 8 Nor..to stoope at the thicke-shell'd Dorrs of Obiection. |
4. Comb., as dor-bee, dor-beetle (see 1, 2); dor-bug, a name applied in America to various beetles, esp. Lachnosterna fusca; dor-fly (see 1, 2); dor-hawk, the goatsucker or night-jar; † dor-head, a stupid or blundering fellow = beetle1 4 (obs.).
| 1833 A. Greene Life & Adv. D. Duckworth I. 86 It's a *dorbug! 1849 Parkman Oregon Tr. (1872) 42 The dor-bugs hummed through the tent. 1852 Hawthorne Blithedale Rom. I. iv. 55 Our fire-light will draw stragglers, just as a candle draws dorbugs. 1863 T. W. Higginson Out-door Papers (1874) 271 The Dytiscus, dorbug of the water, blunders clumsily against it. |
| 1668 Sir T. Browne Wks. (1848) III. 505 Have you a caprimulgus, or *dorhawk? 1766 Pennant Zool. (1768) II. 246 The goat-sucker..feeds on moths, gnats, and dorrs or chaffers; from whence Charlton calls it the Dorrhawk. 1832 Wordsw. ‘Calm is the fragrant air’ 22 The busy dor-hawk chases the white moth With burring note. |
| 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 460 There is none so very a *dorrhead as that hee vnderstandeth not [etc.] |
▪ II. † dor, n.2 Obs.
Also dorre.
[Goes with dor v.1; perh. from ON. dár scoff, in phr. draga dár at to make game of.]
Scoff, mockery, ‘making game’ chiefly in phrase to give (any one) the dor: to make game of, mock, subject to ridicule; so to put the dor upon, to receive or endure the dor, etc. (From quot. 1552, perh. originally a term at cards.)
| 1552 Huloet, Dorre at cardes. 1570 Levins Manip. 170/24 A Dorre, blanke, argutia. 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. v. ii, Which [change of colour] if your antagonist..shall ignorantly be without, and yourself can produce, you give him the dor. [See the whole passage.] 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. viii. §33 The dorre, which..Hubert, did put vpon King John and his late designe. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Lover's Progr. i. i, I would not receive the dor. a 1625 Fletcher Love's Pilgr. iii. ii, What dor unto a doating maid this was, What a base breaking off? a 1625 ― Woman Pleased iii. iii, I will never bear this, Never endure this dor. 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. vii. xxv, There oft to rivals lends the gentle Dor, Oft takes—his mistress by—the bitter bob. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. 82 [He] brings home the dorre upon himself. a 1734 North Lives I. 361 They all thought he had put the dor, as they say, upon the chief justice. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! xxxi, He has given the Lord High Admiral the dor. |
▪ III. † dor, n.3 Obs. rare—1.
[perh. = ON. dári fool, buffoon; cf. prec. and dor v.1]
A fool.
| 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. v. i, This night's sport, Which our court-dors so heartily intend. |
▪ IV. † dor, v.1 Obs.
Also dorre.
[Goes with dor n.2; perh. from ON. dára to mock, make sport of.
Gifford's conjecture that it is derived from dor n.1, in reference to the desultory flight of the cock-chafer ‘which appears to mock or play upon the passenger, by striking him on the face’, appears unlikely.]
1. trans. To make game of, make a fool of, mock, befool, confound. to dor the dotterel: to cajole or hoax a simpleton: cf. dare v.2 5.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 170/24 To Dorre, arguere. 1577 Fulke Confut. Purg. 368 Thinke not to dorre vs with Cyprians name. 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. v. 39 (N.) What, hop'd you that with this I could be dor'd? 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iv. vi, Oh that villaine dors me. 1614 ― Barth. Fair iv. i, Here he comes, whistle; be this sport call'd Dorring the Dotterel. 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Answ. §10 (1653) 42 But this is but a blind, wherewith the Bishop would Dorre his Reader. 1675 Cotton Poet. Wks. (1765) 177 No more thou now shalt dorre me. |
2. intr. To make sport, mock.
| 1655 tr. Scuderi's Artamenes vii. ii. IV. 96 There was not one of them which dorred at the difficulty of the enterprize. |
▪ V. † dor, dorr, v.2 Obs.
[Cf. durr v.]
trans. To make dim or dull (in colour); to deaden.
| 1601 Holland Pliny ix. xxxviii. I. 259 The lightnesse or sadnesse of the one [colour] doth quicken and raise, or els dorr and take downe the colour of the other. 1603 ― Plutarch's Mor. 150 By a good medly of them both to darken and dor the worst by laying the better to. |
▪ VI. dor
obs. form of dare v.1, deer.