doll, n.1
Etymology: a shortened pet-form of Dorothy, Dor- being modified to Dol-: compare Hal, Sall, Mall, Moll, Poll = Harry, Sarah, Mary.
1. A pet form of the name Dorothy. Hence given generically to a female pet, a mistress. Also, the smallest or pet pig in a litter (dial.).
1560 Nice Wanton in W. C. Hazlitt Dodsley's Sel. Coll. Old Eng. Plays
(1874)
II. 169
But ich tell your minion doll, by Gogs body.
1578 T. Cooper Thesaurus
(new ed.)
O Capitulum lepidissimum, o pleasaunt companion: O little pretie doll polle.
a1592 R. Greene Sc. Hist. Iames IV
(1598)
i. sig. B
In louing of my Doll [sc. Dorothea], Thou bindst her fathers heart.
1600 Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 ii. iv. 19
(stage direct.)
Enter mistris Quickly, and Doll Tere-sheet.
1883 W. H. Cope Gloss. Hampshire Words
Doll, the smallest pig in a litter.
1560—1883(Hide quotations)
2.
a. An image of a human being (commonly of a child or lady) used as a plaything; a girl's toy-baby. [Compare Scots Doroty, a doll, a puppet. (Jamieson)]
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew
Doll..also a Child's Baby.
1747 D. Garrick Miss in her Teens ii. i
I'll carry you and your doll too.
1764 K. O'Hara Midas i. v
An infant's dol.
1833 H. Martineau Loom & Lugger VI. i. i. 4
As large as my doll's saucers.
1860 All Year Round 21 Apr. 35
A laborious class Who earn painful bread by fashioning dolls' eyes.
1699—1860(Hide quotations)
b. A dummy used by a ventriloquist, or by a puppeteer.
1893 R. Ganthony Pract. Ventriloquism iv. 138
Hand Dolls to fit on hand (à la punch)... Knee Dolls 30 inch high, dressed any character.
1950 Oxf. Junior Encycl. IX. 476/2
A conventional ventriloquist's dummy is a wooden doll with large glassy eyes, enormous shutter mouth, and teeth like tombstones.
1957 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 906/2
To operate, put the doll on the hand like a glove.
1967 Listener 23 Nov. 679/1
Voices that belong not to human beings but to ventriloquists' dolls.
1893—1967(Hide quotations)
3. transf. A pretty, but unintelligent or empty person, esp. when dressed up; a pretty, but silly or frivolous woman. Also in more general sense: a woman; a girl; esp. a very beautiful or attractive woman; also occasionally, a pleasant or attractive man. a doll's face, one conventionally pretty, but without life or expression. Now slang.
1778 F. Burney Evelina I. xxiii. 197
As to the women, why they are mere dolls.
1841 R. W. Emerson Self-reliance in Ess. 1st Ser.
(London ed.)
76
A sturdy lad..is worth a hundred of these city dolls.
1846 New Swell's Night Guide 29 in E. Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl.
Soldiers and their Dolls.
1860 All Year Round 17 Mar. 497
No worker cares to espouse a doll who costs such a deal of money to dress.
1861 H. Mayhew London Labour
(new ed.)
II. 496/1
If it's a lady and gentleman, then we cries, ‘A toff and a doll!’
1894 S. Baring-Gould Queen of Love III. 145
You care for herself—for her doll's face and wig of yellow hair?
1903 R. L. McCardell Conversat. Chorus Girl 53
At Vassar..a bunch of society dolls..are teaching me high kicking.
1923 G. McKnight Eng. Words iv. 61
In the vocabulary of modern youth, chivalry is dead... A girl is..a chicken, a doll, [etc.].
1931 D. Runyon
(title)
Guys and dolls.
1961 ‘B. Wells’ Day Earth caught Fire ix. 133
I don't dig you, doll. Look we're all entitled to so much water.
1961 Webster's 3rd New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. (at cited word)
He is tall, handsome, and muscular. In short, he's a doll. E. Merman.
1967 I. Marder Paris Bit iii. 47
He came up to me..and shook hands warmly... ‘Max, doll! How are you?’
1971 Scope
(S. Afr.)
19 Mar. 139/1
You don't have to do it, doll.
1778—1971(Hide quotations)
4.
†a. A hairdresser's block. Obs.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew
Doll, a wooden Block to make up Commodes upon.
1699—1699(Hide quotations)
b. = dolly n.1 4a.
1841 Peter Parley's Ann. 178
As I understand you get your living by washing, I send you a doll now..namely, a washing doll.
1841—1841(Hide quotations)
c. A pair of steps, with wheels, and a stage at the top, used on coal-wharves.
d. doll's head (in a rifle), a top-extension fitting into a mortice in the top of the standing-breech.
1881 W. W. Greener Gun & its Devel. 216
Our new treble-bolt prevents this by keeping the doll's head firmly down in the slot in standing-breech.
1881—1881(Hide quotations)
Compounds
C1. General attrib.
a.
doll-face n.
1884 Tennyson Becket iv. ii
A doll-face blanch'd and bloodless.
1884—1884(Hide quotations)
doll-kind n.
doll-maker n.
1825 T. D. Fosbroke Encycl. Antiq. I. ix. 261
In the Middle Age the doll-maker was called Coroplastes, and the dolls clothed like infants.
1825—1825(Hide quotations)
doll-pig n. (see 1.)
1843 Peter Parley's Ann. 269
The poor woman..wept as if she had lost her youngest child instead of the doll pig, which is the name usually given to the pet of the farrow.
1843—1843(Hide quotations)
b.
doll-like adj.
1828 M. R. Mitford Our Village
(1863)
III. Introd. 461
The delicate doll-like baby..is her own.
1828—1828(Hide quotations)
doll-sized adj.
C2.
† doll-common n. Obs. (the Cheater's punk in Ben Jonson's Alchemist) a common woman, a prostitute.
1612 B. Jonson Alchemist i. i. sig. B3v
Thou shalt sit in triumph, And not be stil'd ʽDol common, but Dol proper, Dol singular.
1684 T. Otway Atheist v. 59
What, be a Doll-Common, follow the Camp.
1612—1684(Hide quotations)
dolls' hospital n. (also N. Amer. doll hospital) an establishment in which dolls are repaired and from which materials for doll-making can be bought.
1917 Playthings Aug. 114/2
(advt.)
Doll hospital. Attention French bisque heads.
1928 Donaldson's Port Elizabeth & Surburban Directory
(S. Afr.)
113
Dolls' Hospital, Peel St., box 550.
1934 Cope's Directory: Worcs. 217/1
Bradburn A M..speciality, dolls' hospital.
1941 E. F. Ackley Doll Shop of your Own 93
A doll hospital section of your shop is a possibility... The Humpty Dumpty Doll Hospital in California is one of the best known.
1949 Eastern Province & Midlands Directory
(S. Afr.)
90/2
Dolls Hospital.
1964 Certificate of Incorporation
(Companies House)
No. 818240
3 Sept., Doll's Hospital Limited.
1964 A. Butler Teaching Children Embroidery ii. 22
Hair may be obtained from any Doll's Hospital shop.
1971 J. Leasor Love-All ix. 155
The Dolls' Hospital... A giant red cross and red crescent painted on the glass showed..that here was a hospital of some kind.
1917—1971(Hide quotations)
doll-house n. (see doll's house n.).
doll-land n. the realm of dolls.
1871 Monthly Packet Oct. 392
The inhabitants of Doll-land would never have recognized the difference between these home manufactures and the best Russian sables!
1959 Chambers's Encycl. XIII. 709/2
An interesting adjunct of doll-land is the doll's house.
1871—1959(Hide quotations)
Derivatives
ˈdollatry n. [after idolatry] nonce-wd. worship of dolls.
1856 Chambers's Jrnl. 6 261
To convince good Protestant mammas that ‘dollatry’ was not the result or the origin of Mariolatry.
1856—1856(Hide quotations)
ˈdolldom n. the world of dolls.
1860 All Year Round 21 Apr. 35
Those limp enormities of dolldom with their pink wooden legs.
1893 Graphic 3 June 627/3
How a lady moving in the best circles of dolldom ought to be dressed.
1860—1893(Hide quotations)
ˈdollhood n. the state or condition of a doll, or of being like a doll.
18.. T. Carlyle Let.
There is much for her to do..her whole sex to deliver from the bondage of frivolity, dollhood, and imbecility.
1876 W. Bayliss Witness of Art 19
Radiant with all that real hair, and wax and rolling eyes can impart to dollhood.
18..—1876(Hide quotations)
ˈdollship n. the personality of a doll or doll-like woman.
1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison VI. xx. 94
The man who should dare to say half I have written, of our Dollships, ought not to go away with his life.
1753—1753(Hide quotations)
Draft additions 1993
The target in the game of Aunt Sally; (hence) a score made by hitting this off its stand or ‘iron’. Cf. Aunt Sally n.
[1946 G. Tyrwhitt-Drake Eng. Circus & Fair Ground xvii. 202
Aunt Sally or the ‘Airy Mary’s; sticks, covered with coloured hair, with dolls' heads.]
1975 Games & Puzzles Apr. 12/2
In a single leg, or ‘horse’, it's possible for a team to throw down forty-eight Dolls—in fact no side has ever scored more than thirty-nine in one leg.
1983 Wantage & Grove Herald 27 Jan. 24/4
Bernard Stimpson was top man for Drayton with 9 dolls.
1985 Abingdon Herald 21 Feb. 23/2
Colin Brind scored a magnificent 15 dolls for the Legion including a fine six in the final leg... Highest doll scorers of the season are Sid Green, 142, [etc.].
2009 A. R. Taylor Played at Pub 62–3
Placing the 'doll' on its post at The Five Alls in the Cotswold village of Filkins.
1975—2009(Hide quotations)