dout, fear; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 37. OF. doute, fear.
dow, to thrive; ‘He’ll never dow’ (i.e. he’ll never do well), Ray, North C. Words, 13; spelt dough, to be in health, Heywood, The Fair Maid, ii. 1 (Clem). ‘Dow’ is in prov. use in the north, meaning to thrive, prosper, also, to recover from sickness (EDD.). ME. dowe, pr. s. 1 p., am able to do (Wars Alex. 4058). OE. dugan, to be able, to be vigorous (see Wright, OE. Gram. § 541).
dowcets, the testicles of a deer. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, iv. 2 (1 Woodman); B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., i. 6. In old cookery books dowset was the name of a sweet dish. F. doucet, dimin. of doux, sweet. See NED. (s.v. Doucet), and cp. [dulcet].
dowe, ‘dough’. Lyly, Endimion, i. 2 (Tellus); ‘A lytell leven doth leven the whole lompe of dowe’, Tyndale, Gal. v. 9.
dowl(e, soft fine feathers. Tempest, iii. 3. 65 (see W. A. Wright’s note). In prov. use in the S. Midlands for down or fluff (EDD.). ME. doule, a down-feather (Plowman’s Tale, st. 14). See Notes on Eng. Etym.
dowle, see [dool].
dowsabell, a sweetheart. A name, used as a term for a sweetheart. Com. of Errors, iv. 1. 110; London Prodigal, iv. 2. 73. F. douce-belle, L. dulcibella, sweet and fair.
doxy, a vagabond’s mistress. (Cant.) Winter’s Tale, iv. 2. 2; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg). See Harman, Caveat, p. 73; where the sing. form is doxe.
drabler, drabbler, an additional piece of canvas, laced to the bottom of a bonnet of a sail. Greene, Looking Glasse, iv. 1 (1328); p. 134, col. 2; Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, iv. 1 (Y. Forrest); vol. vi, p. 416. From drabble, to wet; from its position. Cp. E. Fris. drabbeln, to stamp about in the water (Koolman). See EDD. (s.v. Drabble).
dragon, the name of a stage in the fermentation for producing the elixir. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly).