Word of the Day

: February 23, 2008

dodgery

noun DAH-juh-ree

What It Means

: evasion, trickery

dodgery in Context

Mitch thought his clever act of dodgery would spare him from paying taxes on the money he earned from the sale of his vacation home, until an audit notice came in the mail from the IRS.

Did You Know?

In "dodgery" one can see the verb "dodge," meaning "to evade by a sudden or repeated shift of position." That verb entered English in the 17th century, but the noun form of "dodge," referring to the act of evading something by such a motion, is over a hundred years older. "Dodgery" entered English around the same time. You can dodge things physically -- as in getting out of the way of the ball in the popular schoolyard game -- or figuratively, as in shirking one's responsibilities, often by some kind of deceitful action. From there the use of "dodgery" to mean "evasion" or "trickery" is hardly an elusive connection.