dodge

«dodge» in Mova's school dictionary: to move quickly to one side to avoid being hit or caught — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (dodge, dodges, dodged, dodging); noun (a dodge, dodges)

meaning for a pupil

1) To dodge is to move quickly to one side to avoid being hit or caught. tree →

2) To dodge something is to avoid it in a clever or dishonest way (dodge a question, dodge a job). tree →

3) A dodge is a quick movement to one side, or a clever trick to avoid something. tree →

sense in the lessons

In PE and games like dodgeball, players dodge the ball. In stories a hero dodges arrows or a falling rock; a character who dodges a question may be hiding the truth. In everyday life, «dodging chores» means avoiding them. Phrases: dodge the ball, dodge a question, dodge the rain, dodgeball, a tax dodge.

examples

• He dodged the ball just in time. tree →
• We played dodgeball in PE. tree →
• The rabbit dodged the fox and ran into its hole. tree →
• She dodged the question by changing the subject. tree →
• My brother always tries to dodge washing up. tree →
• We dodged between the raindrops to the car. tree →
• The cyclist dodged a puddle. tree →
• He dodged here and there with the hounds at his heels. tree →

note

Regular verb: dodged, dodging (drop the e). Adjective «dodgy» (British, informal) means not safe, not honest or not working well.

In the corpora

• Dodging a question isn't the same as lying — but it can hide things.
• Answering a different question to dodge the real one is called a red herring; good interviewers ask the question again.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «dodge» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.