Chapter Doctrinists to Dog of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Doctrinists to Dog

Doctrinists or Doctrinaires. A political party which has existed in France since 1815. They maintain that true liberty is compatible with a monarchical Government; and are so called because they advocate what is only a doctrine or dream. M. Guizot was one of this party.

Dodge (1 syl.). An artful device to evade, deceive, or bilk some one. (Anglo-Saxon, deogian, to conceal or colour.)
   The religious dodge. Seeking alms by trading on religion.
   The tidy dodge. To dress up a family clean and tidy so as to excite sympathy, and make passers-by suppose you have by misfortune fallen from a respectable state in society.

Dodge About (To), in school phrase, is to skip about and not go straight on through a lesson. A boy learns a verb, and the master does not hear him conjugate it straight through, but dodges him about. Also in class not to call each in order, but to pick a boy here and there.

Dodger A "knowing fellow." One who knows all the tricks and ways of London life, and profits by such knowledge.

Dodger The Artful Dodger. John Dawkins, a young thief, up to every artifice, and a perfect adept in villainy. A sobriquet given by Dickens to such a rascal, in his Oliver Twist, chap. viii.

Dodington whom Thomson invokes in his Summer, was George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcomb-Regis, a British statesman, who associated much with the wits of the time. Churchill and Pope ridiculed him, while Hogarth introduced him in his wig into his picture called the Orders of Periwigs.

Dodipoll As wise as Dr. Dodipoll (or) Doddipole - i.e. not wise at all; a dunce. (Doddy in dodi-poll and doddy-pate is probably a variant of totty, small, puny. Doddy-poll, one of puny intellect.)

Dodman or Doddiman. A snail. A word still common in Norfolk; but Fairfax, in his Bulk and Selvedge (1674), speaks of "a snayl or dodman."

"Doddiman, doddiman, put out your horn,
Here comes a thief to steal your corn."
Norfolk rhyme.

Dodona A famous oracle in Epiros, and the most ancient of Greece. It was dedicated to Zeus (Jupiter), and situate in the village of Dodona.
    The tale is, that Jupiter presented his daughter Thebe with two black pigeons which had the gift of human speech. Lemprière tells us that the Greek word peleiai (pigeons) means, in the dialect of the Epirots, old women; so that the two black doves with human voice were two black or African women. One went to Libya, in Africa, and founded the oracle of Jupiter Ammon; the other went to Epirus and founded the oracle of Dodona. We are also told that plates of brass were suspended on the oak trees of Dodona, which being struck by thongs when the wind blew, gave various sounds from which the responses were concocted. It appears that this suggested to the Greeks the phrase Kalkos Dodones (brass of Dodona), meaning a babbler, or one who talks an infinite deal of nothing.

Dods (Meg). The old landlady in Scott's novel called St. Ronan's Well. An excellent character, made up of consistent inconsistencies; a mosaic of oddities, all fitting together, and forming an admirable whole. She was so good a housewife that a cookery book of great repute bears her name.

Dodson and Fogg The lawyers employed by the plaintiff in the famous case of "Bardell v. Pickwick," in the Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens.

Doe (1 syl.). John Doe and Richard Roe. Any plaintiff and defendant in an action of ejectment. They were sham names used at one time to save certain "niceties of law;" but the clumsy device was abolished in 1852. Any mere imaginary persons, or men of straw. John Doe, Richard Roe, John o' Noakes, and Tom Styles are the four sons of "Mrs. Harris," all bound apprentices to the legal profession.

Doeg (2 syl.), in the satire of Absalom and Achitophel, by Dryden and Tate, is meant for Elkanah Settle, a poet who wrote satires upon Dryden, but was no match for his great rival. Doeg was Saul's herdsman, who had charge of his mules and asses. He told Saul that the priests of Nob had provided David with