Meaning & use
dottle
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Meaning
noununcountableold-fashionedspecialist
The small clump of unburned tobacco and ash left at the bottom of a pipe after smoking.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: knocked out the dottle.
Patterns
- knock out the dottle
He tapped the dottle out of his pipe against the fireplace.
The old man scraped the dottle away before refilling the bowl.
A tin of pipe tools helped to clear the dottle.
Common combinations
- knock out the dottle
- Knock out the dottle before refilling.
- scrape the dottle
- He scraped the dottle with a tool.
- leftover dottle
- A bit of leftover dottle stayed in the bowl.
- clear the dottle
- Clear the dottle regularly.
- pipe dottle
- The ashtray was full of pipe dottle.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
Practice
The dottle is found in a ___.
Choose one answer.
Dottle is the tobacco remnant at the bottom of a smoking pipe. The others do not hold tobacco.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dottle”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.