doze

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as probably borrowed from Old Norse dúsa (“to doze”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} perhaps with the dús (“lull, dead calm”) that Collins and the OED cite.^[7][8] The OED calls the origin uncertain and the Shorter Oxford unknown.^[8][9] Both note that the word was perhaps in dialect before it reached literary English.^[8][9][2] Its first sense, "to stupefy", is identical with Danish døse (“to make dull or drowsy”).^[8][10][11] Compare Swedish dialect dusa (“to slumber”),^[8][2][12] Middle High German dōsen (“to be quiet, slumber”),^[3][5] and the Scots and northern dialect word dozened with Middle English (Scots) dosnyt (“stupefied, dazed”).^[13] Etymonline, Skeat and Partridge connect it with dizzy, from Old English dysig (“foolish”).^[2][12][6] Wiktionary traces the Norse verb to Proto-Germanic *dusāną (“to be dizzy”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰews- (“to fly, whirl”).^[1] Johnson derived it from Old English dwæs and a Dutch word.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To stupefy, muddle or make drowsy, as a transitive verb: 1617, in a sermon of J. Hales at Oxford.^[8][3] Barnhart dates this sense to 1647,^[5] and Dictionary.com the word to 1640–50.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The transitive sense, "stupefy, bewilder", lasted until 1818,^[8] and Johnson (1755) still gives it first, quoting Clarendon on a man "dozed in his understanding".^[14] It survives only in Scots dialect.^[9] The intransitive sense, to sleep drowsily or be half asleep, is recorded from 1693 in the OED and Barnhart,^[8][5] although Etymonline has it from the 1640s.^[2] Johnson defines it as "to slumber; to live in a state of drowsiness",^[14] and quotes Pope's "Chiefless armies doz'd out the campaign" for the use with an object, spending time in dozing, which dates from 1693 too.^[14][8] The noun followed in 1731,^[8][2][5] and doze off is recorded by 1829 in Etymonline, but only from 1860 in the OED.^[2][8] The idea of dullness also passed to wood: the participle dozed described timber decayed inside from the mid 17th century,^[9] and in Caithness the verb was used of straw, hay or wood spoiled by fungus.^[15] In Scots, especially around Edinburgh, doze was also to spin a top so fast that it seems motionless.^[15]

Timeline

• 1617 – transitive, to stupefy, to make drowsy (obsolete by 1818).^[8][3]
• 1693 – intransitive, to sleep drowsily, to be half asleep.^[8][5] Etymonline dates this to the 1640s.^[2]
• 1693 – transitive with away or out, to pass time in dozing.^[8]
• 1731 – noun, a short slumber.^[8][2][5]
• 1860 – doze off, in George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss.^[8] Etymonline has the phrase by 1829.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sleep lightly or on and off; to nap: The old dog dozed by the stove.^[7][4][3]
2. To fall into a light sleep, often with off: She dozed off over her newspaper.^[7][3][8]
3. To be dull or half asleep; to be drowsy.^[3][8]
4. To pass time drowsily, usually with away: They dozed the long Sunday away.^[4][3][8]
5. (obsolete, 1617–1818) To stupefy, muddle or make drowsy.^[8][3][14]

Noun

1. A short light sleep.^[7][4][3][8]
2. Decay in timber.^[3]

Word family

• dozer
• adoze
• dozy

Related words

• dizzy
• daze
• bulldozer

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged also enters a verb doze, to clear or level with a bulldozer, probably a back-formation from dozer and first known from 1945.^[3] The Shorter Oxford likewise derives it from dozer, calling it colloquial and of the mid 20th century,^[9] and Dictionary.com, dating it 1940–45, takes it as a shortening of bulldoze.^[13] Dozer in that sense is recorded from 1942.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ a b c d e Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)