dosser, a basket, pannier. Merry Devil, i. 3. 142; Jonson, Staple of News, ii. [4.] (Almanac); spelt dorser, Beaumont and Fl., Night-Walker, i. 1 (Lurcher). An E. Anglian word for a pannier slung over a horse’s back (EDD). ME. dosser, a basket to carry on the back (Chaucer, Hous F. 1940). F. dossier, ‘partie d’une hotte qui s’appuie sur le dos de celui qui la porte’ (Hatzfeld).
dotes, endowments, good qualities. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, ii. 2 (Cler.); Underwoods, c. 25. L. dotes, pl. of dos, an endowment.
dottrel, dotterel, a pollarded tree; also used attrib.; ‘Old dotterel trees’, Ascham, Scholemaster, bk. ii (ed. Arber, p. 137); ‘A long-set dottrel’, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 465. ‘Dotterel’ is used in this sense near Oxford, and in the south Midlands (EDD).
double reader, a lawyer who is going through a second course of reading; ‘I am a bencher, and now double reader’, B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iv. 1 (Practice); ‘Men came to be single readers at 15 or 16 years standing in the House [Inn of Court] and read double about 7 years afterwards’, Sir W. Dugdale, Orig. Jur., 209 (Glossary to Jonson).
doubt, i.e. ’doubt, a shortened form of redoubt, a fortification. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 286.
doucepere, an illustrious knight or paladin. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 10. 31; orig. only used in the pl.: ME. dozepers (douzepers), the twelve peers or paladins of Charlemagne. Anglo-F. li duze per (Ch. Rol. 3187). See NED. (s.v. Douzepers).
dough; see [dow].
dought, to make afraid, Fletcher, Bonduca, i. 2 (Suctonius). See [dout].
douse, to strike violently; ‘To death with daggers doust’ (also wrongly, dounst, in ed. 1587), Mirror for Magistrates, Henry VI, st. 4. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.).
douse, a sweetheart. Tusser, Husbandry, § 10. 7. F. douce, fem. of doux, sweet; L. dulcis.