Definition of "dotard"
dotard
noun
plural dotards
(archaic) An old person with impaired intellect; one in their dotage.
Quotations
"Dotard," (said he) "let be thy deepe advise; / Seemes that through many yeares thy wits thee faile, / And that weake eld hath left thee nothing wise, / Else never should thy judgement be so frayle, / To measure manhood by the sword or mayle.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, page 16
I speak not like a dotard nor a fool, / As under privilege of age to brag / What I have done being young or what would do / Were I not old.
1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]
The man who had some virtue whilst he was struggling for a crown, often becomes a voluptuous tyrant when it graces his brow; and, when the lover is not lost in the husband, the dotard a prey to childish caprices, and fond jealousies, neglects the serious duties of life, and the caresses which should excite confidence in his children are lavished on the overgrown child, his wife.
1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter 2, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792
Lawns, houses, chattels, groves, and fields, / All that the fertile valley shields; / Wages of folly--baits of crime, / Of life's uneasy game the stake, / Playthings that keep the eyes awake / Of drowsy, dotard Time;—
1835, William Wordsworth, “The Pass of Kirkstone”, in A Guide through the District of the Lakes
He early determined to marry and wive, / For better or worse / With his elderly nurse, / Which the poor little boy didn't live to contrive: / His health didn't thrive— / No longer alive, / He died an enfeebled old dotard at five!
1867, W. S. Gilbert, "The Precocious Baby," The 'Bab' Ballads, Complete Edition, Philadelphia: David McKay, no date, p. 73